Deluminating
by Solstice Muse
Summary: Ron's encounter with the Horcrux left him open to more than just his own thoughts. Fortunately the Deluminator adapts to help him once again. DH canon compliant A Ron and Ginny sibling fic.
1. Introduction

**Deluminating**

'_**I have seen your heart, and it is mine.' – Lord Voldemort**_

She was sitting on the front step, crying.

"Whassamatter Ninny?"

He was her favouritest person in the world except for Daddy...and Mummy...and Father Christmas...and the Tooth Fairy...

"Go 'way Ronnie," she said with a pout.

"But you're crying," Ron said as he worried his lip between his teeth and took a hesitant step forward.

"Go 'way!"

Ginny rubbed at her leaking eyes and Ron sat down beside her on the step. He leaned into her side and gave a light nudge.

"Ninny, why're you crying?"

Ginny swung out her arm and slapped Ron on the leg.

"Don't call me Ninny!"

"Sorry," Ron mumbled into his chest, "want me to get Mum?"

She sniffed and shook her head.

"Want me to get you a biccie?" Ron asked with a hopeful smile.

"Go back to Fred and George and lea'me alone!" Ginny huffed, stamping her foot, angrily.

Ron stood up and looked down at her, finger wriggling inside a hole in his trouser leg and feet shuffling, awkwardly.

"But you're still cryi-"

"They won't let me play with them because I'm a girl!" Ginny screeched and then blubbed.

Ron crouched down and looked at her with another one of his hopeful smiles.

"They won't let me play with them because they think I'm a baby," he offered by way of consolation.

"But they...they sometimes do...if you," she sniffed and got to her feet, Ron rising with her, "they play with you and make you pick on me!"

Ron looked so ashamed of himself he was on the verge of tears.

"No they don't," Ron said, meekly.

"They do!" Ginny stomped her foot, "It's their fault you call me Ninny and they made you tell me I couldn't come up the tree with you."

"They only wanted me up that tree to push me out of it," Ron sulked.

"But they let you do fun things sometimes too. They show off to you and they tell you secrets and they shut the door on me because girls aren't allowed an...and..."

"Hey Ronniekins," Fred called out from the front gate, George standing a little way behind him and struggling to conceal something in his coat pocket, "why are you hanging around with _Ninny_? We've got something really cool to show you."

Ron looked from George's bulging pocket to Fred and then behind him to Ginny and seemed torn.

"Can Ginny come?" he asked, knowing the answer already.

"No!" both twins barked.

"She tells on us all the time," Fred said with a scowl, "Ginny-Ninny, Mummy's girl."

Ginny stooped and picked up a clod of earth to throw at Fred but he lunged at Ron and pulled him in front of him like a human shield. The dirt hit Ron in the back and Fred laughed.

"See what Ninny thinks of you Ronniekins?" Fred said with a wicked sparkle in his eyes, "I think we should go to the den and plot something to get her back."

Ron took a step backwards and stood at Ginny's side.

"Can't Ginny come with us just this once?" he asked, doubtfully.

Fred looked disgusted.

"No girls Ronniekins!"

"Yeah," George called over, "you know the rules."

"Unless you're a little girl too," Fred said as he stepped closer to his little brother, "maybe we shouldn't let you come to the den anymore."

Ron's fists balled up at his sides and his face went red.

"I'm _not_ a girl."

"But you _are_ a baby, Mummy's baby boy!" George taunted from afar.

"I am not!" Ron shouted, furiously.

Fred folded his arms and smirked.

"Prove it. Come with us and get Ninny back for hitting you with that dirt."

"Or stay here on the baby girl step and play with your dollies," George said with a girlish tone of voice.

Ron looked at Ginny, who was huffing and looking away, and then back at Fred.

"So what's it going to be Ronniekins?"

Ron reached out and took Ginny's hand. She gasped and squeezed it back, tightly.

"Ginny always wants to play with me," Ron said, "and you only want me to play when there's something smelly or dirty or bite-y that you don't want to touch."

Fred rolled his eyes and turned to George.

"Looks like we've got two sisters after all George: Ninny and Sissy!"

"Go away or I'll tell Mummy," Ginny growled, tightening her hold on Ron's hand and tears squeezing from her eyes.

"And she's off, the tell tale twit," George snapped.

"Stop it, she's crying!" Ron shouted, angrily.

"Why don't you join her ickle baby, put on one of Ninny's dresses and run crying to Mummy?" Fred taunted.

"Drop dead Fred!" Ron bellowed.

Her eyes flew open and Ginny sat bolt upright in her bed, panting, her eyes streaming with tears.

She was shaking all over at the memory of her childhood, her memory of Fred picking on her and Ron, and of Ron telling Fred to...

She shuddered and threw back the bed sheets. Her bare feet slapped down onto the floorboards and she felt around on the floor for her slippers.

It had been so vivid. Not only that but she had felt Ron's emotions radiating from him, she had felt his need to be included and his shame at wanting to leave his sister crying and make Fred like him, she had even felt his blush.

She opened her bedroom door and crept along the landing towards the stairs. As she made her way down she tried to shake off the feeling of unease that had forced her awake. Hearing Ron wishing Fred dead in his impetuous, childish way, could have been enough to unsettle her but she was sure it was more than that. She was sure that it had been the feeling that she was really there with Ron, Ron was really holding her hand and squeezing it so tightly.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs she turned to head towards the kitchen so she could make herself a drink and realised that there were lights flickering against the walls. The lamps were all lit.

"Ron?" she gasped as she peered in through the door and saw her brother sitting at the table, head in his hands and hands massaging his temples.

Ron's head shot up and he gaped at her in shock.

"What are you doing down here?" he blurted.

"I had a bad dream," Ginny said, still amazed that Ron would suddenly appear at the very moment she had dreamt about him as a little boy making the choice that would lead to him being the twins' target rather than their accomplice.

"Oh right," Ron said as he winced again and rubbed his thumb in tight circles at the side of his head.

"Are you alright?" she asked as she pulled out a chair and sat down across from him.

"Yeah, just a headache."

Ginny leaned over the table and took Ron's hand in hers, giving it a squeeze.

Ron's eyes widened and he stared at her in apprehensive awe.

"I didn't..." Ron began, voice cracking.

"I miss him too," Ginny said, eyes stinging with tears she couldn't let herself shed.

Fred hated it when she cried.


	2. 1 Whose Mind is it Anyway?

**Whose Mind is it Anyway?**

He was shivering all over as he flung himself upright and tore at the bed sheets as if they were vipers trying to crush him to death.

His head was pounding right in the middle of his forehead, just above the bridge of his nose, and he was still trying to shake off the sound of screaming that rang in his ears. He'd been having a strange nightmare, he was wet and cold, and everything around him was bright except for the sky, which was a deep dark blue.

He tried to compose himself and shook his head, instantly groaning as his head throbbed painfully, and soon there was an arm around his shoulders and the mattress was dipping with the weight of an extra body.

"What is it? Are you feeling ill?"

Ron massaged his forehead with the heel of his palm and exhaled, deeply.

"'M fine, I just have a headache, it's too bright."

There was a pause and then Harry's hand was pressing against Ron's head to feel for signs of a fever.

"Ron, mate," Harry was saying, worriedly, "it's pitch black in here."

"Nah," Ron grumbled as he tried to shrug off Harry's touch, "in my dream, it was too bright."

Harry sounded as if he was fumbling for his glasses on the bedside table and Ron pulled the covers back around himself. He was still as cold as if he was outside in the dead of winter, despite it being a sweltering summer night, and couldn't shake off the imaginary chill that was tormenting him so badly.

Harry was rubbing his hand up and down Ron's back now and the ache inside his head gradually lessened.

"You're shaking Ron."

"Yeah, I'm a bit cold that's all." Ron mumbled.

"Cold?" Harry said, sounding worried, "Right, that's it, I'm getting your Mum."

"No, wait," Ron said as he pulled Harry back by his wrist, "don't go waking people, I had a weird dream and now I'm fine. I'm just gonna go back to sleep and you should too alright?"

Ron's breaths evened out and his shivering had subsided. Harry sat beside him and stared through the darkness for a moment before sighing and getting up from the bed to return to his own.

"Sorry I woke you," Ron called over as he snuggled back under the covers and buried his face into the pillow.

"I woke you often enough over the years." Harry chuckled as he climbed back into his bed.

"Yeah but we don't have to share a bedroom any more, you shouldn't have to wake up because of me at all," Ron mumbled, hoping that the residual throb inside his head wasn't going to keep him from falling asleep again.

"Well don't tell Ginny this but," Harry shifted onto his side and lowered his voice, "I can't sleep without the sound of you snoring in the background!"

Ron laughed and Harry joined him. They stopped with abrupt intakes of breath through their clenched teeth at what sounded like somebody opening Ron's parents' bedroom door and then settled back down to sleep without another word.

* * *

Ron had gone back to Hogwarts part time to finish his N.E.W.Ts and ended up sitting the exams alongside Ginny. He put the headaches down to the stress of study. Ginny often looked like hell in the mornings after one of their all night revision sessions in the common room too. When they took a break from it and Ron went back home to the Burrow to pitch in with helping George at the shop Ginny seemed to take it a little easier on herself and appeared fresher when they were back on Monday for their next class together. 

Hermione would fret over him, telling him he was looking tired and always, _always_, overreact to his sporadic headaches. His mother was overdoing it too, slapping all kinds of smelly remedies onto his forehead whenever Harry would let slip that Ron had woken in the middle of the night in a state.

The dreams, the nightmares, sometimes it was just a splitting headache that was accompanied by voices and faces he didn't know...he actually described the feeling to Harry one night and became quite concerned by the fact that Harry said it sounded a lot like his visions through the eyes of Voldemort.

Somehow he got through the school year and did enough for George and the shop to be able to leave both places behind him and sign up for the Auror training programme. Ginny considered her options; becoming Harry Potter's girlfriend and then Harry Potter's wife and then mother to Harry's Potter's children; and soon decided that she was Ginny Weasley and she wanted to make a name for herself that wasn't anything to do with Harry's.

She tried out for the Harpies but they had a full and very experienced squad of witches. They told her to keep up her fitness levels and play on a semi professional team to keep her reflexes sharp and re-apply in a couple of years. She soon discovered that the most competitive and highly esteemed semi professional league was the Auror league and promptly signed up for the Auror training programme so she could be eligible to join one of the teams.

Harry skipped the whole exam taking and training programme thing and was therefore years ahead of them both so they were on their own...apart from the fact they had each other of course.

"So," the strength and agility trainer barked across the gym, "Weasley, you take the combat room and try to avoid getting hit by the spell that turns you green. The spell that turns you green represents the killing curse."

"Which Weasley, sir?" Ron and Ginny both asked, hoping he would say the other's name.

"Whichever one of you isn't doing the combat training will be tested for endurance under extreme coercion...y'know the sort of thing? If you get captured we need to know you can keep your mouth shut under torture and what-not."

Ron's eyes bulged and Ginny let out a small squeak. The man laughed, heartily.

"Just a little joke, we simply train you how to answer questions while under Veritaserum without actually giving anything away to your captor. Evasive truth we call it, you don't lie but you avoid a direct answer, it takes a hell of a lot of mental strength. You decide which one of you is taking which and then get on with it."

Ron and Ginny turned to face each other and shrugged.

"Physical one sounds tiring," Ginny said, inconsequentially.

"Yeah, and the mental one sounds...mental."

Ginny leaned in close and whispered.

"How're your headaches?"

"What headaches?" Ron lied with an obviously fake grin, "I'm fine!"

"Harry talks to me you know?" Ginny said as she leaned back, folding her arms and scowling at her brother, "But if you want to pretend you're fine then you go ahead and take the truth potion and I'll-"

"Get turned green?" Ron taunted.

"I'll last longer than you will!" Ginny said, puffing out her chest.

"Oh put those away," Ron snorted down at Ginny's breasts, "I'm your brother, they don't work on me!"

Ginny huffed and tutted at him in annoyance.

"Well when you miss dinner because you're curled up in bed with a migraine, don't expect any sympathy from me."

"Sympathy from you?" Ron scoffed, "Don't make me laugh!"

"Weasleys!" the strength and agility trainer shouted across the room at them.

"I'm just going sir!" Ron said as he set off for the mental endurance room.

Ginny hurried to the combat room and called her apologies to the Auror as she passed him by.

* * *

Harry finished for the day and walked around to the training floor of the Auror department to pick up Ginny. He was met with quite a sight when he arrived. 

His girlfriend was bright green from head to foot and his best friend was holding a bag of ice to his head and leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

"What happened to you two?" Harry said with a blink as he stood before them.

"Well I died almost instantly," Ginny said as she blew her green fringe out of her eyes, "and he decided to skip the '_not divulging_ _information_' part of mental endurance training and just performed Legilimency on his instructor."

"You did _what_?" Harry gasped, unaware that Ron was able to do such a thing at all.

"I _didn't_," Ron growled through gritted teeth, wincing at the pain in his head, "I didn't even have my wand in my hand."

"Well your instructor was pretty bloody pissed off with you wasn't he? What did you see anyway?" Ginny demanded, not, apparently, asking this question for the first time.

Ron glared at her and then changed the position of the bag of ice against his head. Harry was suddenly angry.

"Did the instructor hit you for going into his mind?"

"What?" Ron said as he scrunched up his face, "No!"

"He couldn't get out again and fainted." Ginny said, less aggressively this time, "I have to take him home and make him take some dreamless sleep draught." She turned to Ron, "I knew you weren't up to that, I should have said something to somebody."

"_I_ wasn't up to it?" Ron huffed before looking at Harry in disbelief and gesturing to Ginny with a wave of his hand, "The bright green woman reckons I wasn't up to it."

"Look, don't bicker, you two." Harry said, not in the mood to mediate between them after a hard day's work.

"I'm the same colour I was this morning but _I'm_ the one who's not up to it," Ron muttered, moodily.

"Keep on bitching and I'll tell Mum what happened to you today," Ginny said, threateningly.

"Don't you fucking dare!"

Harry grabbed Ginny by the elbow and pulled her away from her brother before they antagonised each other into a sibling duel.

"You stay there with your ice and I'll call Hermione to come and escort you home," Harry said as he wrestled his furious green girlfriend towards a nearby fireplace.

"I can make my own way home," Ron huffed as he threw the bag of ice down and got up very quickly.

Harry saw Ron sway on his feet and clutch his head. Ginny flung herself forward to steady him and cried out in panic as she tried to lower him back down onto the bench. Harry's mind was suddenly drawing on all times he'd seen Ron collapse or falter. He was watching the goblet of mead falling to the floor and Ron following it as his eyes rolled back and he started choking. He was trying to hold a grey-faced Ron up as he tried to support himself on his broken leg in the Shrieking Shack. He was watching in horror as tentacles wound around Ron's arms and chest as the terrified sixteen year old fell with a thud.

Finally Ron was on his knees in the snow, his head in his hands, and there was nothing Harry could do or say to console him.

'_How could you think that about yourself?_'

"Harry!" Ginny's anxious yell snapped him out of his reverie.

He shook his head to clear it and Ron was slumped in Ginny's arms, panting heavily and blinking his eyes back into focus.

"I couldn't help it," Ron jabbered, weakly.

"I know, I'm sorry, I won't tell Mum I promise," Ginny was saying as she petted her brother's head, soothingly, "but I'm worried about you Ron. I think you should go to see a Healer about these headaches."

"It was the locket," Ron whimpered as he looked up at Harry, "it made everything worse!"

Harry stared at Ron in wonder and dropped to his knees before his best friend.

"Mate, what just happened?"

Ron screwed up his face and pressed his palms firmly to his head. Ginny was rubbing his back and Harry was looking around for somebody to ask for help.

"Just get me home," Ron said, unsteadily, "get me home and drown me with dreamless sleep draught."

Harry and Ginny helped Ron to his feet and supported him to the fireplace.

"Ron, this is more than nightmares and overworking," Harry said as he grabbed a handful of Floo powder from the urn fixed to the wall.

"Nightmares?" Ginny said, looking from Ron to Harry in shock, "He gets headaches in the daytime, not at night," Ginny looked back at Ron and glared at him, "not that you've told me."

"Not now Ginny," Harry said, "he's in no fit state. We'll figure out what's going on later on, Hermione'll be able to w-"

"You can't tell her!" Ron said, panic stricken, "She'll worry and it's just a soddin' headache."

"A _year_ of headaches Ron!" Harry yelled, "Now shut up and do as you're told or we really _will_ tell your mother!"

* * *

"I was talking to Neville the other day and he was telling me about this plant that smells of melted chocolate when the sun hits it," Hermione said as she sat, straddling Ron's lap as he sat in an armchair at the Burrow, and wove her fingers in and out of his hair, "and all I could think of was you!" 

She smiled and kissed him as his arms curled around her waist and he sighed into her face.

"I remind you of melted chocolate or you thought about melted chocolate and got some ideas?" Ron said as he smirked against her mouth.

Hermione shoved him in the chest and playfully scowled at him before resting her head upon his shoulder.

"You smell like chocolate on your fingers," Hermione said as he lifted Ron's hand to her face and kissed each one of his finger tips in turn, "always, ever since I met you."

Ron smiled and nuzzled into her hair.

"Do I taste of chocolate too?" he whispered.

Hermione lifted her head and sucked upon his bottom lip, then licked along the top, and dragged her tongue along his with a contented hum of satisfaction before grinning.

"You have just the right ratio of Ron to chocolate."

Ron sighed and shifted beneath her so they could snuggle more comfortably in each others arms. Hermione settled her head on his chest and closed her eyes with a contented sigh. Ron curled and uncurled a lock of bushy brown hair around his long finger, idly, and they sat together in peaceful silence for quite some time.

They gazed into the flickering flames of the fire and let their minds drift away...

Ron was sitting before the fireplace with his head in his hands. Hermione couldn't help herself but put her arm around him and rub his back.

"I dunno why I try," Ron's voice said, low and raw, "I dunno how I ever managed to fool myself that I could be good enough."

"You _are_ good enough," Hermione said, soothingly, "we've all seen you defending those hoops like a pro; you just have a problem with your nerves, that's all."

"Maybe my nerves are telling me what everybody else knows," Ron snorted as he looked up at her and then immediately looked away to hide his face again, "just because you want something doesn't mean you should build up your hopes of getting it."

"Why not?" Hermione said, suddenly feeling as if Ron was specifically talking to a part of her that she had kept well hidden.

Ron slumped, still in his Quidditch robes, shin pads and all, and shook his head.

"I'm never gonna stand out against the rest of them am I? Charlie got the Quidditch, Bill got the looks, Percy got the brains and the twins got the popularity. What is there left for me to be?"

"You just have to be you," Hermione said, fighting back tears, "whoever said you weren't good enough just as you are?"

"I seem to recall you telling me I was shallow, inferior, lazy, stupid..."

"I never said any of those things!" Hermione hissed as she shoved him in the shoulder.

"So I don't have 'the emotional range of a teaspoon' then?" Ron said, casting her a bitter sideways glance.

"Ron we say hurtful things to each other we don't really mean all the time, don't you dare throw them back at me like that."

"It's true," Ron shrugged, "I plumbed the depths of my talents and came up only waist deep. I can paddle in my potential Hermione. You and Harry can drown, you're so great at everything, and I can barely wade."

"Stop it," Hermione said, sharply, "I didn't wait up this late for you only to hear you talking about yourself the way Malfoy talks about you!"

Ron looked at his feet and fidgeted, awkwardly.

"Why _did_ you wait up for me?" he mumbled.

"I can't sleep if I know you're unhappy." She replied softly.

"What?" Ron said as he sat up and turned in his seat to gape at her.

"You know what you are?" she said, tossing back her head shaking her bushy hair out of her face in that business-like way of hers, "You're like a cork bobbing along on the surface of the ocean."

Ron blinked.

"I'm a cork," he repeated, blankly.

"Yes," Hermione nodded, "a cork."

"Well, thanks for that," Ron said with a nod, slapping his thighs and pushing himself up out of his seat, "g'night!"

Hermione grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him back down into his seat.

"Do you know _why_ you're like a cork?"

"Well isn't it obvious?" Ron said, unable to keep himself from laughing a little at the absurdity of the question.

Hermione let herself relax and smiled at him.

"You put yourself on the surface completely. Everybody sees all of you, nothing's hidden. You do have depths, probably greater depths than even you know, because no matter how far something pulls you down your natural buoyancy will send you right back up again."

"So I'm a floater, great." Ron said, crinkling his nose.

Hermione punched him in the arm.

"You said Harry and I could drown on our potential, well you can ride your potential anywhere you want to go and I think that's a wonderful thing Ronald." She jabbed herself in the chest, "I can get in over my head, you know that well enough by now, but with you around to cling on to I'll always be able to stay afloat."

Just as Ron's face changed from confusion to a broad smile and intense blush the memory of their fifth year faded away and Hermione shivered in Ron's arms and looked away from the fireplace at the Burrow and up at him.

Ron's eyes were closed and he had lines corrugating his forehead and crinkling the bridge of his nose.

"Ron. Are you alright?" she asked him as she reached up to cup his face, tenderly.

His eyes opened and he shook his head a little before smiling.

"M'fine," he said before snuggling deeper into the chair and squishing her tightly into his side, into the space that seemed made especially for her to slot into position.

Hermione nestled her head into the crook of Ron's shoulder.

"I was thinking about all those nights in front of the fire in the common room, just me and you," she said as she rubbed her palm up and down over his stomach, "it was the only time we used to talk to each other properly. It was when I knew you were worth waiting for."

Ron shifted a little beneath her and cleared his throat.

"You um...you remember how you used to stay up late to cheer me up after Quidditch?"

"Oh my God, I was just thinking about that!" Hermione gasped, "See how we're in tune with each other now? We were out of sync for so long and now..."

"Now it's as if we can read each other like a book," Ron said, voice distant.

"I know," Hermione said, squeezing him tightly, "isn't it wonderful?"

Ron didn't say anything.

"Ron," Hermione wriggled into a sitting position and looked him in the eye, "something _is_ wrong, talk to me."

Ron swallowed and then took a deep breath before holding her hand and rubbing her knuckles with the pad of his thumb.

"Y'know how a person can get lost in their own thoughts?"

She smiled and nodded.

"Happens to me all the time."

Ron tried to smile but didn't quite manage it.

"Have you ever felt as if...as if you were getting lost in other people's?"

Hermione sat up and tilted her head to one side, examining Ron's face intently.

"How do you mean?"

Ron shrugged and shook his head again.

"Ignore me, I'm just so distracted these days, my mind keeps wandering off without me."

Hermione stroked Ron's face and reached up to kiss him on the lips.

"I like that you're more thoughtful, it shows maturity." She said, proudly.

"I am mature aren't I?" Ron grinned.

"Oh definitely," Hermione nodded and laughed.

Ron rubbed his nose against hers and his grin changed from happy to cocky.

"I should get some sort of present for being so mature," Ron said as he rummaged around inside Hermione's pockets, "and I know how you like to keep a Chocolate Frog handy to reward me when I've been good."

"Ronald, you're not a dog!"

"Woof!" Ron said gruffly into the side of Hermione's neck.

"Well I might have an 'In case of emergency' Chocolate Frog in my cloak but you'll have to do more that bark at me for it."

Ron buried his face deep into the mass of hair at the side of her head and murmured into her ear.

"Want me to roll over?"

Hermione giggled.

"No."

"Want me to play dead?"

"Of course not!" Hermione exclaimed.

Ron tugged at her earlobe with his lips and whispered in a way that made her shiver all over.

"Want me to beg?"

"I could enjoy that!"

* * *

"Mr Weasley," Ron's instructor said as he sat Ron down and scrutinised him with his piercing gaze, "could you tell me what happened during your training yesterday?" 

"Um," Ron said, shaking his head, "I'm really sorry, I wasn't thinking and I didn't mean to do...what I did."

"What did you do?" the man asked as he sat back in his chair and folded his arms.

"Well I, er...you know what I did, you...saw!"

"I didn't _see_ anything Mr Weasley, I was preparing you for your training in evasive questioning and then I saw a dozen or so of my own memories flashing before me. You saw them too didn't you?"

"Yeah, I'm really sorry," Ron mumbled, shamefully, "I really didn't mean to, I didn't even know I could do Legilimency."

"So you wouldn't have suspected that you could do it without a wand either then?" the man said, eyebrows raised.

"Excuse me?" Ron frowned, leaning forward and cocking his head to one side.

"You did it with your wand in you back pocket Mr Weasley. You didn't realise that?"

Ron gulped and his eyes were wide.

"I know I...I didn't have it in my hand because I wasn't trying to do anything like that."

The instructor warmed to him a little and moved his chair closer, voice lowering.

"Look Weasley, I think you're a decent lad, I know you were as shocked as I was yesterday, but you have to tell me the truth."

Ron nodded.

"Has anything like that happened to you before?"

Ron drew in a deep breath and then answered.

"What you saw yesterday," Ron spoke clearly and steadily, "was the first and only time that has ever happened to me."

The man smiled and got up out of his seat.

"Good to hear, now get back to your group and continue your training."

Ron smiled and sprang to his feet.

"Thank you sir," he said as he hurried to the door.

"Oh and Weasley," the man called over just as Ron's hand grabbed the door handle.

"Yes sir?" Ron looked back at the man who was ticking something on his clipboard.

"Passed with flying colours on the evasive questioning, good for you, but now I'm going to need you to actually tell me the truth."

Ron's head dropped and his arm swung away from the door handle, limply.

"Yes sir," he said with a sigh.

* * *

_A/N I'm baaaaaack!_

_So this one's post DH, canon pairings, Ron centric (so NO comments complaining about Ron being the focal point of the story, you've been warned up front, if you don't like Ron then don't read this or anything else I've ever written!), and in quite the departure for me...there's going to be a lot of Ginny._

_I can deal with Ginny since DH. She made me hate her in HBP but I can live with her now because she didn't save the world with her bouncy hair!_

_Most of you know how fast I write but I'm gonna take my time with this one. This isn't to say there'll be weeks between updates, just not daily updates. I just wrote 75 chapters of slash fic in 78 days and it knackered me so I'm taking it easy this time round._

_Solstice Muse_

_(Smug tht she was proved right about Ron all along)_


	3. 2 I'm Looking Through You

_A/N For Amy - R.I.P._

**I'm Looking Through You**

The dinner table at the Burrow was as raucous as ever. Ginny was shouting at Charlie for stealing her roast potatoes. Bill and Fleur were feeding each other in a fairly revolting foreplay kind of way. Arthur was rhapsodising about his cordless electric drill to Percy, who nodded politely, and Harry and George were discussing the profit surge at Wheezes. Molly was bouncing Teddy on her hip and dishing up the dinner while cooing over the screaming child.

Hermione glanced at the tomato red hair of the crying baby boy and huffed as she raised her voice to continue speaking to Ron.

"So you passed your test then? Was it just a pass or fail situation or did you get marked?"

Ron jammed his finger into his ear and leaned in close to Hermione.

"What?"

"I said, did you get a mark for your evasive questioning or was it just a pass?" Hermione said loudly and clearly.

"I passed," Ron said, making sure to mouth the words so she'd be able to read his lips even if she didn't hear him.

"I know that," Hermione huffed and rolled her eyes with exasperation, "I asked you if you were marked. Did you get marked out of ten or did you pass by a certain percentage? Did you get an O or and E? What are the Auror grades?"

"Just pass and fail, Hermione," Ron yelled back, "you're either good enough or you're not."

"Oh," Hermione said, voice lowering now and head nodding.

Ron thought she looked a little disappointed.

"You prefer it if some people are better than others don't you?" Ron said, breaking into a smile.

"No!" Hermione protested with a gasp, "Of course I don't Ronald, what a thing to say."

"You do," Ron laughed, "you don't want me to be the same as all the other 'passers' you want me to be better than them. You want me to be a '_sur_passer'!"

Hermione flushed in the face and Ginny elbowed Ron in the ribs and then leaned around him to laugh at Hermione's embarrassment.

"Never gonna happen Hermione, not while I'm in the same programme as he is!"

"Yes," Ron said, scowling back at his sister, "because they don't award grades or points at the Auror training facility, the best student is marked to stand out clearly so we all know who's best." Ron smirked at her, "That was why they turned you bright green wasn't it Gin?"

Ginny punched Ron in the arm and Molly shouted at them to show some decorum at the dinner table. Hermione sighed, annoyed at herself for having started another sibling fight. Bill picked a runner bean off his plate and poked it between Fleur's lips. She sputtered and looked disgusted.

"Beel, you know 'ow I 'ate zose! Where are ze French beans?"

"I'll put a little beret on them next time," Molly muttered under her breath.

Arthur pulled her down into her seat and patted her on the arm.

"Come now Molly love, let's have a nice family meal without any unpleasantness."

"Well _she_..." Molly began.

"Oh bloody hell, at it again," George muttered as he rolled his eyes, "you'd think the baby would calm her down but no."

"And comments like that do nothing to alleviate the situation do they George?" Percy huffed.

"Um, actually Mrs Weasley," Harry said, suddenly feeling as if he was shirking his responsibility, "let me take Teddy off your hands."

"He's settled now Harry, don't be silly," Molly said as she blew her dishevelled hair out of her face.

"Just while you eat," Harry said as his chair scraped on the floor and he rose to his feet.

"Harry I am capable of feeding myself while holding a baby, for goodness sake I've had seven children!"

"I wasn't..." Harry paled; devastated that he might have offended her.

"Mum, it's his Godson, maybe he wants to spend some time with him rather than have you hog him all day," Ginny snapped, never one to reign her temper in when it came to her mother.

"Ginny, don't be rude," Arthur said, attempting to calm the situation.

"Yeah, Harry can speak for himself, he doesn't need you mouthing off and offending people on his behalf!" Ron said, scathingly.

"Come off it," George smirked, "as if she doesn't have his bollocks in her handbag these days. Be a good boy Harry, sit and stay!"

Ginny glared from Ron to George and Harry glanced worriedly from her to her mother, not knowing if he should persevere with his quest to take Teddy off Molly's hands or let her rule the roost as usual.

"Dignity at the table, is that too much to ask for?" Percy said, angrily.

"Right, everybody shut up, oldest child talking so you all have to bloody well listen!" Bill yelled while fleur scraped the vegetables off her plate and onto his.

"Shut it Weasleys!" Charlie roared at the top of his lungs, "I did not come all this way to listen to you lot fight. This is the first time we've had the whole family together for ages so bloody well enjoy it or I'll give you a good hard slap!"

Ginny laughed, soon joined by her father. Molly looked as if she wanted to chastise Charlie for his language but Arthur's laughter at the table distracted her and soon she was looking at her husband as if he was clearly insane but she was resigned to it.

"Oh really," she chuckled as Arthur's smile caused her to let it go.

Percy rolled his eyes and shook his head before cutting his meat and smiling quietly to himself.

Ron was turning to look at Harry when there was a rush of colours and sounds, like you would experience when you stuck your head out of the window on the Hogwarts Express, and he suddenly felt lonely and hurt and angry.

He had a part of him cut away and he couldn't stand. He tried to open his mouth and he couldn't speak. There was something missing, something huge, he was incomplete and voiceless and nobody even noticed.

Ron was about to reach out and try to steady himself when the hollow at his side was filled and he felt a warm sensation. Suddenly he heard laughter all around him, he felt the laughter too, and words seemed easy and fun.

He looked to his side and saw George...no...it was Fred. Fred was standing at his side, turning and winking, cockily at him before sprinkling some powder over a small boy in Gryffindor robes and then cheering as the boy grew a full and bushy beard.

More colours blurred as the confusing landscape whizzed past and Fred was punching the air and dancing around Percy, totally ecstatic, and he felt the incredible surge of joy and happiness inside him.

"I saw it, I saw that, you can't take it back," Fred was yelling as he continued to bounce around Percy, pointing into his flushed face, "you thought that one was funny. You were laughing."

"I did not laugh," Percy said, trying to sound dignified.

Ron felt George's laughter from the inside.

"I saw that little muscle twitching in your cheek," Fred gloated, "you wanted to laugh. You thought that was funny. You thought _I_ was funny!"

The laughter grew and the warmth enveloped him while the scene was torn away and a new one span into focus.

Percy was allowing his mother to pick the lint off his robes while he pinned his Head Boy badge onto his chest, which he puffed out proudly. Ron was swearing as he read the Quidditch results.

"Ronald!" his mother scolded.

"But they're calling the Cannon's dead before the season even begins."

"Well they are," Fred smirked.

"Says who?" Ron scowled.

"Says a committee of knowledgeable experts," Fred said as he slapped Ron on the back.

"What committee is this?" Ginny said as she passed through the kitchen with a mug of tea.

"Any committee," Fred shrugged, "they're all the same."

"Indeed," Percy said as he turned around to allow his mother to pin up the hem of his robes, "a committee is a group of the unwilling, chosen by the unfit, to do the unnecessary."

Fred gaped at his brother before barking out a laugh and stopping suddenly. Then he laughed again, still looking as if he couldn't quite believe what he'd heard.

"Were you just..._funny_?"

"I can understand why you would have to check on that," Percy said, haughtily, "humour obviously not being your forte."

"You cheeky git!" Fred laughed.

Ron felt himself laughing along with George and then felt desperately sad as Fred's smiling face faded away.

There was another blur of sound and colour before an echoing darkness, as if the train had just plunged into a tunnel, and Ron was shaking all over. Soon the light and noise returned and he could see himself as a child, sobbing in his mother's arms, while she looked at Fred and scolded him. Ron felt a great resentment for his younger self and pity for Fred for taking the blame.

"But he broke m-" Fred began to defend himself.

"A silly little toy can be mended but Ronnie's just a baby! You two are supposed to look after the poor thing, not torment him to tears!"

Ron felt the dislike brewing up from within himself. He wasn't a sodding baby, when George was that age people didn't cut him any slack, nobody made excuses, Ron was a whiny little cry baby. He was a stupid little Mummy's boy. He hated 'ickle Ronnie' so much.

Fred turned to him, face red with anger, and he felt himself making a silent pledge to get the stupid little baby boy back for getting them into trouble.

Another rush of colour and laughter and yelling and warmth before he was holding the tip of his wand against two small freckled hands. Fred was clutching a younger Ron's hands and looking him in the eye.

"Will you, Ronald, keep quiet and never tell on your brothers, Fred and George, and always do as they tell you on the first time of asking?"

"But..." the young, squeaky voiced version of Ron said, looking frightened.

"Say you will or we'll never play with you ever again," Ron heard himself hissing with George's voice.

His younger self pouted and tried to pull his hands away from Fred.

"Stop it ya baby, you're ruining the spell!" Fred huffed.

A sliver of bright flame whipped out from the end of the wand he was holding and he jumped back in fright, not wanting to burn his brothers' hands with it.

"No George," Fred yelled as the flame fell like a dollop of syrup onto the floor and hissed before vanishing altogether, "you have to hold it on our hands so the vow works properly."

"Sorry, you didn't say there'd be fire," Ron heard George huffing, "let's do the other one you wanted to make him say."

Fred looked at little Ron with determination and gripped his hands tightly.

"Right, you do as you're told and keep hold of my hands," Fred said, firmly, "and after I ask you the question you say 'I will' and you don't let go or whinge about being frightened, right?"

The little version of himself nodded.

"Ok, will you, Ronald, stay s-"

There was a furious bellowing and the door smashed open and splintered against the wall. Their father was standing there, glowing red and shaking all over, and absolutely furious.

"Get your hands off him _NOW!_"

Ron felt sick. He felt as if he was in big trouble. He wanted to run but he was frozen with fear as he watched his father pull Fred away from Ron by the collar of his shirt and drag him away, still shouting at the top of his voice about how disgusted he was with Fred for being so unforgivably stupid and arrogant.

Ron looked down at his younger self, who was staring back at him and crying.

"Georgie?" Ron sniffed, "Why is Daddy scary?"

Ron felt himself flooded with resentment for the little brat. If only he'd have done what he was told. They just wanted to be able to trust him and take him along on their adventures and he had to go and mess it up.

In the next room he heard Fred crying, sobbing that he was sorry, and the image blurred and tore away from him just as his father's voice boomed.

"You could have killed him!"

Ron jumped up from his chair and fell forward, bracing himself against the cluttered dinner table and frantically panting, while panicked voices overlapped with words of concern. People were holding him from both sides and he had broken into a sweat.

Blinking his vision back into focus, Ron saw George standing opposite him, and tried to say something to him but his throat was as dry as sandpaper. He croaked and George staggered backwards into the wall, glaring at Ron as if he'd just spat in his food.

"You had..._no_ right to do that!" George growled, shakily.

Percy jumped up from his chair and tried to placate George but his livid brother shook him off and threw himself forward over the table, supporting himself in the same way Ron was doing.

"How dare you?"

Ron shook his head, Hermione trying to push him back into his seat and Ginny supporting him from the other side while hissing at George to lay off him.

"He jus-" George pointed at Ron, angrily.

"He didn't mean to. Look at him," Ginny yelled as she clung to Ron, "he's as shaken up as you are."

"Ronnie dear?" Molly was saying as she passed Teddy to Fleur and approached her youngest son.

"I know that was you," George said, pointing into Ron's face, "and you had no right."

"George, calm down and have some sweet tea," Percy said as he tried to ease his angry brother back into his seat.

"You had no right to do that to me!" George repeated before pulling away from Percy and marching out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

"Ron, what's he talking about?" Hermione said, worriedly.

"It happened again didn't it?" Ginny said as she shared an anxious glance with Harry.

"Gerroff me," Ron mumbled as he broke free of the two witches at his side before his mother could close her arms around him too, "I've gotta go after him."

"I really don't think that's wise Ron," Percy said as he looked out the window at his departing brother, "just leave him be for now."

"No, I have to...I have to know..." Ron pushed his way around the table and then ran for the door.

George was stomping away from the house, past their Dad's tool shed, and off towards the open fields surrounding the Burrow. Ron broke into a run and called after him.

"George!"

"Fuck off Ron!" George spat over his shoulder before striding onward.

"George, I didn't do it on purpose," Ron puffed as he picked up speed in his pursuit of his brother.

"You shouldn't have done it at all!" George yelled as he spun around on the spot and began charging back at Ron, chest puffed out, "That's _my_ head, _my_ thoughts and _my _memories. Fuck it Ron, you were even feeling my feelings!"

"I didn't want to, I didn't do anything to get inside your head, it was like...it was like you pulled me in."

"Oh so it's my fault?" George said, incredulously, "You selfish little fucker, it's always been about you hasn't it? You can get away with everything because you're Ickle Ronniekins. Well not with me!"

"I'd say that was pretty fucking clear," Ron blurted before clamping his mouth shut and turning away.

"You what?" George said, advancing upon Ron, darkly.

"You're right George, I did feel your feelings," Ron mumbled as his shoulders sagged, "and I am well aware of what you think of me."

George stared at him in silence before shoving him hard.

"That was stupid kid's stuff. You said you hated me and Fred just as often as we were nasty to you. You didn't mean it did you?"

Ron shook his head.

"But you never did _like_ me did you?"

George tutted and turned around to carry on walking away.

"Don't turn this around to make it all about you. You broke into my fucking head you git."

"I didn't do anything," Ron growled, setting off after George, hands gripping his hair tightly.

"Bullshit!" George hissed, "What was that back there then?"

"I...That was..." Ron stalled before stopping in his tracks and letting his head drop, "Something's wrong with me," he finally said, in barely a whisper.

"What?" George said, voice empty, as he turned back to look at his little brother.

Ron shrugged and shook his, still down turned, head.

"I keep gettin'...these headaches," he began, voice barely audible, "having weird dreams and flashbacks and stuff."

George approached him, cautiously.

"You had headaches at school, Ginny told me they were stress from the N.E.W.Ts."

Ron sighed, shakily.

"That's what I thought, yeah."

"That's what you _thought_? So that's not what it _was_?" George said, it was difficult to place exactly what George was angry about now.

"I um...I accidentally performed a little bit of wandless Legilimency on my instructor at work the other day."

"You what? But how?" George gaped.

"I dunno," Ron said with a one shouldered shrug, voice subdued, "it felt as if he was dragging me into his head and I couldn't get out. I ended up passing out."

George's anger was gone now.

"And what did the Healers say?" George demanded.

Ron swallowed.

"You haven't gone to see any Healers about this have you?" George spoke angrily and advanced on Ron some more.

"I talked to my instructor about what happened and he thought," Ron paused and folded his arms across his chest, defensively, "he thought it might be something that was done to me by someone else."

George blinked.

"Somebody's possessing you and making you read people's minds?"

"No, well...no."

"Ronnie," George said, warningly, "you just took the 'George the arsehole' grand tour of my head, you owe me. Now tell me what's what."

Ron bit his bottom lip momentarily and then sighed, deeply.

"Y'know, um, me and Ginny were close when we were little?"

"Yeah," George said with a nod.

"We have a lot in common, like we're the youngest and Mum's more protective and fussy over us, and you and Fred never wanted us around..."

"That was just because you were babies," George winced at the reminder of his forced journey down memory lane, "what self respecting six year old wants a couple of toddlers in nappies tagging along with them?"

"I was _not_ in a nappy when you were six!" Ron protested.

"Oh yes you were!" George said, a ghost of a smile pulling at his lips.

Ron huffed, ears reddening at the tips, before going on with his explanation.

"Well anyway, me and Ginny have something in common that nobody but Harry knows about. Not even Ginny knows."

George put his hand upon Ron's shoulder.

"Is this something to do with your year away, fighting Voldemort?"

Ron nodded.

"This is something you can't tell Healers or anybody at work about I take it?"

Again, Ron nodded.

"Ron, you can trust me, I won't tell a soul. I promise you."

Ron gave a bitter laugh.

"After what I just saw I'm really not sure about that George."

"Come on, I was a brat of a kid, so was Fred, so were you. That's just how we were back then."

"Yeah, I s'pose."

"No, you listen to me; we didn't do that Unbreakable Vow thing because we wanted to hurt you. We did that to, in our own cack-handed way, keep you close to us. We wanted to keep you safe."

"Safe?" Ron laughed weakly, "You were risking my life so I wouldn't be able to tell tales on you!"

"We thought we were making you swear to always do what we told you. We thought we could tell you to hide or stay put and not follow us when we were off doing dangerous stuff. We wanted to make sure y-"

"Bollocks!" Ron barked, "Don't try to come off all noble with me. That was about making me your fall guy, getting me to take the blame for everything you did wrong."

"Yeah, we got you into trouble and pushed you over and made you graze your knee but we also took on a gang of older Muggle boys when they were picking on you in the village because you were our baby brother and, as Mum never stopped hammering home, it was our job to look after you."

"You tormented me mercilessly!"

"And you got us a bad name by always grassing us up to Mum, that's just how we were back then. Now don't change the subject ya pissy little runt, what happened to you that happened to Ginny and that I can't tell anyone about?" George yelled.

"I got possessed by Voldemort!" Ron hollered back.

George's face drained immediately. He shook his head and fixed his wide eyes on his younger brother.

"No you didn't."

Ron's head dropped again and he sighed, heavily.

"Yes I did, in exactly the same way Ginny did, one of his Horcruxes got inside of me. It got inside my head and I couldn't think straight."

George shook his head again.

"No."

Ron swallowed and lifted his head.

"Yes George, Harry said my eyes were red and everything," Ron croaked, "the part of him he left in Harry meant Harry could speak and understand Parsletongue without meaning to. The part of him that was inside me...seems to have left behind his gift for wandless Legilimency."

George stood and stared at Ron for quite some time before his eyes flickered over to the Burrow.

"They're waiting for one of us to hit the other so they can barge over here and separate us."

Ron looked back and saw the anxious faces at the window and Harry and Hermione standing on the doorstep, arms folded.

"You can hit me if ya want," he said as he turned back to George, "but please believe me when I tell you I didn't choose to see inside your head and I didn't want to stay as long as I did."

Ron's voice cracked towards the end of the sentence and George put his hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry about the way I reacted but it just blindsided me," George said sadly, "and the weirdest thing was I knew it was you. It felt like you were with me in there."

Ron looked at George and didn't know what to say. George seemed to know that he'd let more than memories and childish mood swings into Ron's head. He knew that something had to be said.

"So you felt it then, the emptiness?"

Ron felt a lump in his throat and had to look away from George.

"I felt cold...where he should be, it was like when I splinched myself and my arm was cold and raw. It felt as if my whole side was torn away."

George shuddered.

"Don't tell anyone about that," the older wizard said, "I'll keep your secret if you keep mine."

"George," Ron said, looking him in the eye once again, "it's no secret that you miss him. We all know. True, we can't even imagine how much but we know."

"You don't have to imagine it anymore, you felt it."

Ron nodded.

"I won't say anything."

George ruffled Ron's hair and smiled sadly.

"Will you, Ronald," George said as he held his hand on top of Ron's head, "stay safe and always tell your brothers, Fred and George, if you get into trouble?"

Ron frowned.

"What are you doing?" he asked as George gripped his head a little harder.

"I'm finishing the second vow Fred wanted to make you take," he said, simply, "he wanted you to be bound to him so, if you ever got into any trouble, you would have to come to him. We really didn't know the part about you breaking the vow meaning you dying, I swear to you."

"I know you didn't."

George released Ron's head and slapped him on the back.

"One thing though Ronniekins, when Voldemort finally died Harry stopped being able to speak Parsletongue. Why didn't you stop with this Legilimency thing?"

Ron shrugged and shook his head.

"Maybe my scars, you know the story with possession and scars don't you?"

"But that makes no sense, Harry's scar doesn't hurt any more."

"Well I don't bloody know!" Ron snapped, "Maybe he's still inside me, maybe he was right and he's buried deep in my heart and it belongs to him now."

George lunged at Ron and the two of them slammed down onto the grass hard. In the distance Ron could hear Hermione screaming. George pinned Ron down by the arms and growled down at him, furiously.

"Don't ever think that!" he bellowed, "Don't you resign yourself to that, don't let him win after everything Harry went through to beat him." George lifted Ron away from the grass a little way before slamming him back down again, "This is something else and we'll figure it out but I will slap you silly if you let whatever this is own you."

"But what am I supposed to do?" Ron yelled, raggedly, "I can't go to a Healer and tell them I was possessed by Voldemort and now I can't control my magic. They'll lock me up."

"They won't while I have a say in it," George said with defiance.

"But you don't have a say in it!"

"I have money!" George roared, "Percy has contacts and Harry has power. Nobody is touching you."

"I can't tell people!" Ron said as he thrashed beneath George's body weight, "Hermione can't know what happened to me when I destroyed that Horcrux. Mum can't know."

"We'll find somebody discreet," George said, eyes desperate.

"I said no!" Ron snapped.

Suddenly there was a blast of yellow light and the George was thrown off Ron and hit the ground several feet away with an 'oof'. Harry had his wand drawn as he staggered to a halt, panting heavily.

"Sto...Stop fighting you two," Harry winced as he clutched a stitch in his side, "Ron's suffering from some side effects to a test the Aurors did. He's...He's...He didn't mean to do it!"

"He knows, Harry," Ron said as he sat up, "he knows about the locket."

"He needs to go to a Healer," George coughed as he sat up, rubbing his sore back, "he has to get his control back or get rid of whatever it is that's inside him."

"There's nothing inside him!" Harry snapped before turning back to Ron to reassure him, "You just got opened up, your mind was opened up by the Horcrux and then you destroyed it and the door was left open."

"Well get a bloody Healer to close the door then," George grunted back to his feet, "how's he supposed to cope if he keeps getting pulled into people's heads?"

"We'll come up with something, but if any of this comes out Ron's going to be torn to pieces. He won't be able to go out in public. They'll probably take him into the Department of Mysteries and do experiments on him!"

"Experiments?" George blurted, "They're not Muggles, we don't cut people up in our world Harry."

"No you, throw people in Azkaban and have Dementors suck out their souls," Harry snorted just as Ginny ran to join them, having been fighting to persuade Hermione not to join them.

"Keep it down otherwise everybody will know!" she huffed, "And you know what I think?"

"Oh do tell us Ginny," George said with a tut.

"I think the world is so relieved and raw from what happened during that last year Voldemort was terrorising us that any notion that part of his soul is still alive and wreaking havoc will make everybody irrational and Ministry officials will go off their rocker and sacrifice Ron for the sake of public order."

"Kingsley wouldn't do that," Harry said, firmly.

"Kingsley can't monitor everybody at once," Ginny said, bitterly, "it'll take just one person from the Ministry, somebody like Fudge or Scrimgeor, to decide that the best way to make sure Voldemort's soul is completely free from Ron's body is to have a Dementor give Ron the kiss."

Harry was pale and George was turning slightly green. Ginny's cheeks were flushed as she stood over them.

"We have to keep this quiet until we know what's going on, otherwise Ron's going to lose his soul just to 'be on the safe side'!" Ginny said, bitterly.

"Well I'll just let you three handle this," Ron said, quietly, as he got to his feet, "and I'll go back inside and finish my dinner. Please do tell me what decision you've all come to about my life though. I'm slightly curious."


	4. 3 Little Sisters Are Never Right

**Little Sisters Are Never Right, They're Just Slightly Less Wrong**

Ron stood in the bathroom; leaning over the sink with his eyes closed, and rested his forehead against the mirror. The mirror was making soothing shushing noises and he almost didn't hear the door creaking open.

Gentle arms curled around his body and the weight of a head settled upon his back.

"I'm here," Hermione whispered.

Ron sighed, deeply, and mumbled his response.

"I know."

Hermione squeezed him tightly and Ron tried not to let his mind wander. He was trying not to think at all.

"Is everything alright with George?" Hermione asked as she clung to Ron's t shirt, bushy hair tickling the back of his neck.

"No," Ron murmured, eyes still closed.

The mirror's restful sounds grew louder, causing the cool glass to vibrate against his skull, and Ron guessed that the mirror was trying to tell Hermione to stop asking questions.

She did stop asking questions. She didn't, however, stop talking.

"You should lie down in your room if your head hurts."

Ron gripped the basin tightly and held his breath.

"Ron, I really think..."

"Please don't think," Ron huffed, shakily, "don't think, don't think about anything, I know it's not in your nature but switch your brain off for a second."

He was looking at her reflection before him in the mirror and he caught a glimpse of the desperation in his own eyes. Hermione rubbed her hands up and down his arms and pressed her cheek into the smooth freckled shelf of his shoulder blade.

"Whatever it is you can tell me," she whispered, "and if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to, but please don't worry yourself. I can't help but think when I see you looking so stressed."

"Close your eyes," Ron said, doing so himself and hoping she was following suit, "then you won't see...and I won't worry about you seeing."

He turned around in her arms and clung to her. They both sighed. Ron felt an ache in his chest. He could feel Hermione's concern for him flooding out of her. Even if he didn't have his new talent for falling into people's minds he'd still be able to pick up on her worry, she was terrible at hiding her emotions from him.

Something concerned Ron about that.

While he could always read her emotions instinctively he knew that she was constantly in tune with him and saw through him every time he tried to hide something from her. She would know if he was in pain, under stress, lying to her, up to mischief...she was Mad-Eye Moody the way she could look through his protective walls and see into his heart.

'_I have seen your heart, and it is mine.'_

Ron jumped away from her and shivered on remembering the sickening hissing voice of Voldemort. It was as if he was stood, dripping wet with freezing water in the ice and snow, before the fragment of the manipulative wizard again.

"Ok, you're shaking now, please tell me," Hermione said, rubbing her hands up and down his arms to warm him with the friction.

Ron gulped and looked into her wide, worried eyes. He cupped her face in both hands and whispered to her, unsteadily.

"Take my heart."

"What?" Hermione blinked, hands no longer moving but gripping him around the biceps, so tightly the blood stopped flowing properly.

"I want you to have it," Ron said, voice still strangely faint and desperate, "I want...I trust you with it."

"Take...?" Hermione's brow furrowed deeply and she tried to read the fear in Ron's eyes, "Ron, please, I don't understand."

Ron still held her face, gently, in his large strong hands and lowered his head down towards her slowly.

"Do you think I have a good heart Hermione?" he whispered into her face.

Hermione nodded and lifted herself up onto her tiptoes, lips gradually parting.

"Yes."

"Can you see it?" Ron said, voice cracking ever so slightly.

"I...I can see the goodness in you, yes."

"Can you see into my heart?" Ron said, attempting to brace himself for disappointment.

"It's open for everyone to see Ron, that's one of the things I love ab-" Hermione stopped speaking and bit her bottom lip.

For all their kisses and cuddles, hand holding and going to places as a couple, they'd still not talked about love. He loved her, he knew that and he was pretty sure she knew it too, but saying it seemed like something to side-step. It wasn't them, they didn't gush, in fact it was one of the things that made them compatible.

"It's yours," Ron said, hoarsely, "I'm giving it to you; I want you to have it."

Hermione nodded and her lips brushed up and down against Ron's. Her hot, moist breath caressed his face and warmed him through to the core. His shivers were gone now and he dipped his head and kissed her very softly, plucking at her bottom lip and then grazing the top one with the curve of his own. Hermione sighed into his mouth and her fingers were quickly weaving through his shaggy copper hair.

"I'll treasure it," she said breathily.

Ron pressed his lips against Hermione's and then opened them slightly, coaxing hers apart too.

"Tell me its yours," Ron gasped, desperately.

"It's mine," Hermione said, hand falling from his hair and dragging down his chest to settle, fingers splayed, upon his chest, "I've got it now, it's all mine."

Ron held her close to him and kissed the side of her neck.

"Say it again."

"It's mine."

Ron tilted his head to one side and kissed Hermione's open mouth, opening his eyes and looking right into her as they parted, just a breath away from each other.

"Again," he implored as he closed his eyes once more and kissed her again, tip of his tongue stroking between her soft lips.

"It's mine," Hermione panted into Ron's mouth, her lips were glistening as she pushed him into her with the hand she still had at the back of his head, "all mine," she eased her tongue into Ron's mouth and rubbed it against the side of his before moving back and crushing three more kisses against his mouth, "and I'm never letting it go."

Hermione wasn't worrying about anything anymore. She wasn't thinking. Ron relaxed and his mind was at ease again. She wasn't going to pull him in with her mind, not while she had such a hold on him with her arms, her lips, and her heart.

She'd have questions later. Hermione always had questions, but for now he was happy enough to use the best distraction technique in his armoury.

* * *

Ginny took her time changing after her shower. She had been sweaty and filthy after her physical endurance training and wanted nothing more than to go home and snuggle up with Harry on the sofa. The one thing that kept her towel drying her hair rather than using a charm that would only take seconds was Ron.

He had never told her about his possession, and Harry resolutely refused to betray his friend's confidence, but Ginny had known from the first moment she got to really look into her brother's eyes.

The battle of Hogwarts was over, Voldemort was gone and Harry had come back from the dead...and then walked right past her to find Ron and Hermione. She'd lost Fred, she wanted to be with her family and friends, there were so many bodies and so many wounded. It wasn't until the day after Fred's funeral that she sat down with Ron and really looked at him.

He was up unusually early for him, sitting at the kitchen table and gripping his mug of hot tea, and she had pulled out her chair and sat opposite him. They mumbled a good morning to each other and it was a minute or two before they both looked up at each other at the same time, eyes meeting and locking, and Ron's shoulders fell.

"Did he get to you?" Ginny heard herself saying.

Ron's eyes were beginning to well up and he nodded.

"Do you remember what you did?"

Again he nodded.

"That's something eh?" She tried to smile as she spoke but wasn't sure she'd managed to pull it off.

"Not really." Ron said, barely audible.

"Did he hurt you?" Ginny said as she leaned over the table and grabbed him around the wrist, fearfully.

"Nah," he said before drawing in a deep breath and turning his hand over in her grip and holding onto her wrist, much looser than her hold on his, "just showed me all the bad things I think about myself...and what everybody else thinks of me too."

"Nobody thinks bad things about you," Ginny said, cursing Voldemort for playing on her brother's insecurities like that.

"You aren't really the person to be reassuring me on that one Gin," Ron said with a sad smile.

"Oh come off it," Ginny huffed, "brothers and sisters talk like that to each other all the time. Fred and George call you a...George calls you a git as if it's your name but he'd hex the lips off anybody else who put you down."

The mention of George as a lone tormentor weighed heavy on the two of them for a moment.

"He knew all about me," Ron said as he stared down at the table and picked at the tough skin around his thumbnail, "I let him in and he saw everything and...he saw stuff even I didn't let myself see."

"He didn't know you," Ginny said, firmly, "just like he didn't know me, he manipulated us and tricked us with his mind games but he didn't know anything about us."

"You don't know what he said," Ron said, shaking his head, shamefully.

"I know what he said to me when I was eleven," Ginny said, sharply, "Do you think I'm pathetic and whiny and none of you like me because I'm the little princess? Do you think Harry's embarrassed by my affection and wishes I'd go away? Do you think all I'm good for is cooking and cleaning and making babies while all my wonderful brothers pass on the family name and make us respected and admired?"

"No," Ron said, astonished that Ginny still carried those thoughts with her.

"So whatever he said to you is equally ridiculous, tell me what he said and I'll tell you w-"

"No!" Ron said in a fierce panic.

Ginny stopped pushing immediately.

"Ok," Ginny said, withdrawing and patting the back of his hand in a gesture of reassurance, "you don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to."

"'M sorry," Ron sighed, shakily.

"Don't worry, I'll never ask you again," Ginny said with a sad smile, "just promise me you won't believe whatever it was he said to you. He's not in your head any more and that's because you were too strong for him."

Ron gave a her a half smile and then Ginny shook her head and realised that she had her face buried in the damp towel, wet hair hanging down around her face and the scene at the kitchen table merged into the changing room or the Auror department.

She blinked her eyes back into focus and looked at her brother sitting opposite her, rubbing his head and wincing.

"Sorry," he grunted, "I just walked in and...wow! Your thoughts were like Devil's Snare, I didn't have a chance."

"It's ok, I don't mind," Ginny said as she smiled at him, "I know you don't mean to and that was a memory belonging to the both of us so you didn't see anything you had no right to see."

Ron appeared to be incredibly thankful for her understanding. Ginny threw down the towel and tugged at the hem of her long t shirt, to make sure she was covered up, before leaning forward.

"What were you doing in the office with the powers that be for all this time? Are you allowed to tell me?"

"Well, they aren't keen for it to be spread around at work but they didn't say anything about not telling my sister," Ron said with a smile and then a cautious shrug, "if you really want to know."

"Tell me." Ginny nodded.

Ron cleared his throat and leaned forward, elbows on his thighs.

"The want to do some tests to see if I can control the wandless Legilimency and if I can then...well, they were talking about using me for interrogations or something. I'd be a specialist or something."

"Ok," Ginny nodded, "and what if you can't control it? What if the reason you get headaches is because it's damaging you when it happens?"

"They said that they'd look into something to prevent it happening at the same time they were looking into the control. Obviously the Minister and all the higher-ups don't want me reading their minds, they'd like to know how to stop it if needs be."

Ginny didn't like the sound of that.

"So if you read the mind of the Minister for Magic, entirely by accident, and saw something you shouldn't...what would they do to you?"

"They never said," Ron answered, his eyes letting her know that something had been suggested but it wasn't something he was prepared to agree to.

"If they mess around with your head, trying to exploit or control this ability of yours, then I _will_ make heads roll."

Ron smiled at her.

"While you're offering can you do me a ham and cheese roll?"

Ginny laughed and slapped him on the arm, playfully.

"I'm serious!"

"I know," Ron grinned, "but it's so unlike us to have serious conversations that don't involve shouting, I had to do something to put a stop to it."

Ginny rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"So they were ganging up on you to be their mind-reader, as long as you only read the minds they tell you to?"

"No, there was a Healer checking me over and Kingsley was there to negotiate for me. They were talking about a load of stuff I didn't get but Kingsley was on their backs for my rights as a wizard. He said something about exploiting a trainee and they were all mumbling a lot in the corner and glaring at him."

"I like Kingsley!" Ginny beamed.

"Yeah, he's great to have on your side," Ron agreed.

"There's more?" Ginny pressed further.

Ron scratched his head, mussing up his hair at the front, and puffed out his cheeks with a deep exhalation.

"If they can't control it and they can't stop it I'm off the training programme."

Ginny felt his pain immediately.

"And here I am, coasting through just so I can get on the Quidditch team."

"You're hardly coasting Ginny," Ron said as he pointed to her fading bruises.

"I've taken the place of somebody who could have dedicated their life to being an Auror, I want to play Quidditch and I stole somebody's place. I stole somebody's dream and now you might have yours taken away from you too."

"Or I might have been given a gift," Ron said, faint optimism lifting his spirits a little, "this might end up being a really good thing for me."

"It might do. So are we going home?"

"Yeah, get changed and I'll see you there."

He got up to leave and Ginny grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze.

"You always had a gift you know. Please don't think that this is the thing that makes you special," she said with pride.

Ron squeezed her hand back.

"Thanks Gin."

Ginny grinned as she released her hold on him and watched him walking towards the door.

"You know I'm right," she called after him.

"Little sisters are never right," Ron scoffed, turning at the door to smirk back at her, "they're just, on very rare occasions, ever so slightly less wrong!"

She threw one of her trainers at him but he'd already ducked through the door, laughing.


	5. 4 Foster

**Foster**

"Auror Weasley, this is Foster Tracy," said the wizard in charge of the assignments before, with a lazy wave of the wand towards Ginny's waiting hands, a folder with the young woman's name on the front appeared in her grasp, "Miss Tracy, this is Auror Weasley. She is going to be the person you call go to for anything involving your protective custody."

The trainee Aurors were being given their first responsibilities within the department.

Because they were new to the job they weren't placed on missions or used in situations where they would find themselves confronted with Death Eaters. Instead they were sent on security assignments, mostly night watch, some babysitting duties and the occasional decoy search to throw dark wizards off the scent of the real searches going on.

Foster held out her hand towards Ginny and she grinned her most reassuring grin and gripped the woman's hand tightly and shook it as bracingly as she used to see Charlie shaking hands with Bill.

The witch with coffee coloured skin and sleek black hair winced her large, crescent shaped eyes and Ginny immediately apologised and released her hand.

"Sorry," Ginny cringed, "I usually shake hands with men and I over compensate to prove to them I'm not a delicate little princess."

"Not delicate," Foster said as she shook out her sore hand, loosely, "definitely not delicate!"

"Witness _protection_ Weasley," the Auror said to her, sternly, "you understand the word protection don't you?"

Ginny tried not to lose her temper and forced a contrite expression onto her face as she nodded.

"Yes..._sir_."

"It's ok," Foster Tracy smiled at the man, "it's nice to know there's somebody balsy looking after me."

The wizard gave Ginny another look of warning and then cleared his throat.

"Yes, well, Miss Tracy is going to be our witness as soon as we round up the perpetrators in question. Obviously, while their liberty is dependant upon the witness's word, it's not prudent for her to wander about in public and definitely not to remain at her home."

"Of course," Ginny nodded, making sure to keep her tone sincere.

"You will accompany her to her safe house, protective spells are already in place, and you will be her secret keeper."

Again, Ginny nodded.

"Maintain the security of the location, don't arouse suspicion," the wizard began to list, "if you see anything you think could pose a threat call for reinforcements. If you are under attack, call for reinforcements. If anything at all looks like it's about to happen..."

"Call for reinforcements, I understand sir." Ginny nodded with finality.

"You are not there as a form of defence, you are there as a look out and an aide to Miss Tracy, the only spell you should do before calling for reinforcements is a shield charm. No duelling, no attacking, nothing other then protection and calling for help. You are clear on this Auror Weasley?"

"I am very, very clear!" Ginny said, beginning to lose her temper in the face of patronisation.

"Very well," the man said, stiffly, "you'll find your travelling papers, details of who to see about becoming the secret keeper for Miss Tracy, everything you'll need to perform your duties is in there."

"Thank you sir." Ginny smiled.

The man nodded and turned to leave. Ginny was about to give Foster a friendlier introduction to her new guardian when a thought occurred to her and she spun around to call after him.

"Hold on sir," she waited until the wizard had paused and looked over his shoulder, "I'll be with Miss Tracy for a full weekend before checking in back with you here for a briefing right?"

"Yes Auror Weasley, that is all covered in the file. Somebody will fill in for you at the safe house while you are away."

The man huffed and set off again.

"But my brother, sir!" Ginny yelled, "He's having some tests with Healers and I'd really like to..."

"There is no Floo network at the safe house but you'll be able to contact the other Auror Weasley via the approved department owls. There will be one at the safe house when you arrive."

Ginny felt a little better about going away and into hiding with her charge. She smiled at the man but he'd already hurried off so he didn't have to answer any more questions.

"Your brother's ill?" Foster asked with concern.

"No," Ginny shook her head, "just a little overwhelmed. He's fine but I'd still feel better if I could talk to him about what's going on with him while I'm gone."

"Oh right," Foster said, obviously not understanding the exact circumstances but not wanting to pry, "well I hope the tests are all ok and you have nothing to worry about."

* * *

Ron was on his hands and knees in the middle of the room, breathing raggedly and sweating all over, while three Healers and two Aurors gathered in a corner and discussed the failure of all their tests so far.

"There's no point performing Legilimency on him," one Healer said, "that's not what the problem is."

"Yes but if we can build up his mental strength to block out all intruders into his thoughts them maybe that resilience would carry over...?" an Auror said, optimistically.

"Yes!" The other Auror interjected, "preventing invaders into his head altogether, be it people trying to see his thoughts or thoughts leaping out of people's heads and into his."

"But thoughts don't just leap out of people's heads!" another Healer huffed, arms waving with exasperation, "This isn't an attack on his brain, this is his brain pulling thoughts in. It's an internal thing, not an external assault."

"Wha...so what...are we gon-" Ron panted as he sat back on his haunches.

"Drink some water Weasley, you're dehydrated," the first Auror said, dismissively, before turning his attention back to the conversation.

Two of the Healers scowled at him and then crouched down to help Ron up and into a chair.

"Shacklebolt said that we were supposed to help this lad, not work him until he drops!"

The Healer who had hissed up at the Aurors, healer Todd, was a hook nosed but kind eyed witch turned back to Ron and smiled at him while her colleague pulled some strengthening solution out of her pocket and held it to his lips.

"Drink it down in one Ron," the wizard said with a nod of encouragement.

Ron let the thick liquid get poured down his throat. It smelled like almond but it tasted like boiled cabbage. He winced and shuddered as he forced it down his throat. As he caught his breath the Aurors muttered something to the Healer they had been talking to and then sent her away before striding towards Ron to offer him a hand up.

"Weasley, you're doing well but you're not...doing...what we need."

Ron got to his feet with a grunt and was shocked at how steady he felt. The strengthening solution appeared to have worked incredibly fast.

"So what now then?" Ron asked, preparing himself for another round of tests or his probable dismissal from the training programme.

"Now we sit down and discuss our options together and agree to stop flinging experimental spells your way out of desperation," Healer Todd said, firmly.

The Aurors shared a look before turning back towards Ron and the two remaining Healers.

"I sent Turner off to fetch our best Occlumens. I think we should find out if he can break through anything."

"Look, you're not listening to me," Ron huffed as his shoulders fell, "I'm not trying to do this to people. I don't think to myself, 'now I'm going to jump into somebody's head', and the people I end up accidentally invading aren't focusing on keeping me out."

"Exactly," Healer Todd said with a firm nod, "an Occlumens, _any_ Occlumens, is useless to us. What's happening to Ron occurs when he's exposed to a completely open mind as it's at its most vulnerable or emotional."

"So what are you suggesting?" the other Auror snorted, "Maybe we could throw him into a crowd of menstruating women?"

Ron lost all the blood from his face so fast that he almost passed out.

"Jeff, calm down," the first Auror said, warily, "he's just a kid!"

"Ok, very funny you two but how would you feel if you had everybody's hurt and pain and secret passion pouring out of you and int..." the witch's voice faded away into clashing echoes.

Colours spun before Ron's eyes and he staggered backwards into strong arms. He was stifling hot and could smell a familiar yet foreign scent in the air as love and lust and desire flooded through him and strong, rough hands shoved him into a wall and pushed their way down his naked body.

'_Gotta have you Simon, want you now!'_

Ron gasped and tried to pull out of the mind he had been sucked into but new emotions; fear, rage and humiliation; overcame him and he felt his knees buckling under him.

'_You said you'd leave your wife, Jeff, I won't be your dirty little secret forever y'know?'_

There was a roaring scream inside Ron's head and he felt as if his skull was exploding into jagged fragments. Just as arms lowered him to the cool, hard floor the noise inside his head became a furious bellowing on the outside.

"Get the hell out, you bastard!" The Auror, Jeff, was panting, "Who do you think you are, looking at that?"

"He didn't do it," the furious Healer Todd screeched, "you started thinking of something and then became emotive and that dragged him in. This is what we've been trying to tell y-"

"Get over here you freak!" Jeff snarled as he lunged at Ron, who was slumped, exhausted, in the other Healer's arms.

The livid Auror grabbed Ron by the front of his robes and pulled him forward before drawing his wand and pointing it into Ron's sweaty face.

"Jeff, what are you doing?" the other Auror yelped in panic.

"Memory modification!" Jeff boomed, "He has no right to know what he knows about me and I'm going to..."

"_Stupefy!_"

The crazed Auror was blasted away from Ron and into the wall with the force of Kingsley's spell. Everybody froze in shock and stared at the intimidating figure standing in the doorway, wand drawn and eyes burning with rage.

The Healer who had been sent away was quaking behind Kingsley and Ron let his head fall back onto Healer Todd's shoulder while the splitting headache made his vision blurry.

"Ron?" Kingsley's voice spoke with intensity as he stepped inside the room, glaring at the unconscious Auror on the other side of the room, "Go home, take a sleeping draught, have a big breakfast in the morning and check in for training as normal tomorrow."

"I'll see that he gets home ok Mr Shacklebolt," Healer Todd said as she hauled Ron up to his feet.

It felt as if there was soup sloshing around inside his head and he needed both Healers support to stand.

"Shinglebolt, wait..." Ron slurred as he squinted at the huge wizard's dark shape before him.

"Ron, we'll find something to help you, but just do as he says for now," Healer Todd said as she staggered under the strain of holding up a much taller person.

"But I have to fix my head," Ron said with a whimper of pain, "they won't let me go back on the programme if I can't stop this happening."

"_They_ will do what _I_ tell them," Kingsley said, fiercely, "and if this is something that was caused by anything you did to help rid us of Voldemort then we owe it to you to ease your discomfort and assist you with the career of your choice."

"Oh come off it," Ron winced as he spoke, "I'm not Harry, people won't do that for me."

"You don't have to be Harry Potter," Kingsley said with a confident smile, "you're Ron Weasley and that's enough."

* * *

"So this will be your room," Ginny said as she leaned into the back bedroom of the little cottage in Kent, "and I'll have the front bedroom. That way I can see onto the street and all the way down the hill to the village through the window."

"And it's bigger?" Foster asked as she cocked her eyebrow.

"That has nothing to do with it," Ginny said indignantly, "it's all about security."

Foster folded her arms and looked as if she was trying not to smile. Ginny laughed and turned towards the kitchen.

"Well we've been here for a full five minutes and the tea's still not on so I'd better get onto that otherwise news will get back to HQ and I'll get a warning for gross neglect. Sugar?"

"One please," Foster said with a grin.

While Ginny set the kettle on to boil and summoned two mugs from somewhere behind her she noticed a smart-looking barn owl perched at the windowsill.

"Hello...department approved owl," she said with a wave.

The owl hooted and straightened up, ready to do her bidding. Ginny scratched the back of the bird's head and it closed its small black eyes and leaned into her touch. She smiled and thought of little Pigwidgeon, back at home.

She'd named him. She'd fed him and taken care of him while Ron was away on his quest with Harry and she had learned to read his behaviour and translate that to how his master was feeling. At school she'd be able to tell, from just five minutes of petting Pigwidgeon, if Ron had been troubled by his headaches at night or if he had slept soundly. If the night had been peaceful she'd throw a pillow at his head and drag him to breakfast. If the night had been rough she'd let him sleep and bring up some tea and toast five minutes before he absolutely had to rise for class.

This was a formal and slightly aloof owl who would fly to the Burrow and deliver letters to Harry, Ron and her mother but wouldn't come back and emote on their behalf. Ron would write that everything was fine and he'd make some stupid joke and draw a silly little cartoon beside his signature and the department approved owl wouldn't be able to let her know that the truth was her brother was drained and worried and far too quiet for their linking.

Pigwidgeon wasn't allowed to deliver to safe houses, he wouldn't be able to find them because of the enchantments, and she couldn't fire call because the fireplace wasn't connected to the Floo network.

"So how do I word '_How are the tests_ going' in a way that really says '_If you lie to me I'll shave your scrotum while you sleep'_?"

"You're harsh!" Foster gasped from the doorway.

"I have six brothers," Ginny said, plainly.

"Oh right," Foster said, brightly, "well that explains everything."

"You'd be amazed at just how many situations I can use that to deflect blame away from myself." Ginny grinned.

"Yeah but, he'll be so itchy," Foster said with a squirmy movement.

"He deserves to be itchy if he tries to lie to me."

Foster sat at the table and watch Ginny add the milk to her tea and then hand it to her.

"So we're both away from the people we love then eh?" Foster said as she held the steaming mug in both hands.

"My boyfriend's always busy anyway; I'm used to being away from him." Ginny shrugged, "So you have somebody who doesn't know where you are then? Are they in protective custody too?"

"No," Foster said sadly, "on the run. My other half's on the run."

Ginny suddenly cringed and gave herself a mental kick in the bottom. She'd read Foster's case notes, she knew that the older woman had been in a relationship with a Death eater spy, and she knew that he was the person Foster needed protecting from.

"It must have hurt a lot," Ginny said as she joined Foster at the table, "informing on somebody you love so much and knowing that your testimony could send him to Azkaban."

Foster sipped her tea, thoughtfully. As she set the mug back down she gazed out of the window and sighed.

"He's an arsehole, but he was never an arsehole to me."

"And you still did the right thing," Ginny said, wondering if she could ever do the same if the tables were turned, "you weren't selfish. You sacrificed your happiness to stop hundreds of other people getting hurt."

"I bet you'd do the same," Foster smiled as she turned her head to look Ginny in the eye, "I bet if your boyfriend was a danger to people you'd have done the same no matter how much of a queen he treated you."

Ginny thought on that for a moment and didn't know for sure if it was just that she could never imagine Harry being a danger to people or if she could just never imagine giving him up for the sake of others. Either way, she did what she did best and twisted the subject matter just enough to make it appear she was staying with the topic of conversation while, really, she was taking an entirely different route.

"The thing about my boyfriend is...he had a choice like that. He could have run away and hid, kept his close ones close, safe and at his side, and left the rest of the world to fall to pieces. He didn't though, he took the tough decision, and now the world's a better place...only with fewer close ones in his life."

"Doesn't it piss you off that the wrong decision is the one where everybody you love is safe and well?" Foster hissed with bitterness as she slumped back in her chair.

"Oh it really does," Ginny said with a growl.

"Like with your brother," Foster said as she leaned forward again, across the table, "you said he's going through some troubles and you're clearly worried about him, the two of you are very close, right?"

Ginny nodded.

"Closest of all."

"Now imagine if somebody said that there was something wrong with him and that he was a danger to others, he had an infectious disease or something," Foster said as she waved her hand beside her head to signify that the specifics didn't really matter in her theoretical situation, "and he needed to be put away or...dealt with somehow for the sake of the rest of us. You'd hurt but you'd know what had to be done wouldn't you?"

Ginny was suddenly unable to breathe properly.

What if, while she was on her babysitting job and totally unreachable, Ron was deemed uncontrollable or unsafe and the Aurors locked him away from society? What if they tinkered with his mind so much that he ended up like the Longbottoms? What if they made Ron's ability bottle itself up unnaturally and then, like Dumbledore's little sister, it exploded out of him and he ended up hurting himself or their parents?

What if she ever had to make the choice to take Ron into hiding and look after him for the rest of his life or hand him over to be dealt with?

What would she choose to do, the right thing or the thing her heart screamed at her to do?

"Auror Weasley?" Foster was tilting her head to one side and frowning.

"Ginny, call me Ginny," the young Auror said as she shuddered slightly.

"Oh Merlin, I'm sorry!" Foster said as she reached across the table and set her hand upon Ginny's and squeezed, "I knew you were worrying about your brother and then I go and make up a scenario like that. I didn't think. I'm so sorry."

Ginny tried to force a smile onto her face but it only showed from the nose down, the fear was still blatant in her eyes and etched deeply onto her furrowed brow.

"Y'know," she pushed a lock of red hair behind her ear and addressed the knots in the wood of the table rather than Foster herself, "because of the choices my boyfriend made for the good of the world, I lost people too? One of my brothers is dead, he was only twenty, and my friend Colin. Me and Colin would stay up late in the common room and watch Ha...my boyfriend with his friends and talk about stupid stuff for hours."

Foster smiled, sympathetically.

"We'd plan how to get my boyfriend's attention at the next Quidditch match and we'd conspire to get revenge on the bullies who were calling our friend Luna foul names. We'd spend the nights talking about stupid little things while my future boyfriend and my brother and their friend were planning how to save the world without anybody finding out what they did and trying not to get themselves killed."

"You shouldn't compare your childhood to theirs Ginny."

"They were only a year older than me and, from the age of eleven, they were risking their lives and nearly dying! When I was eleven I wasn't risking my life...I was the risk!"

"What?" Foster frowned.

"Forget it," Ginny shook her head and waved a dismissive hand, "I just think that, at times back then, maybe I was the sort of person who would let people get hurt just as long as I was getting what I wanted. As long as everybody I cared about was ok then nothing else mattered."

"You're judging yourself now on how you would have acted as a schoolgirl?" Foster sputtered in disbelief, "We would all be that selfish at that age Ginny!"

"My boyfriend wouldn't have, he couldn't have been and he wasn't."

"Circumstances make things different," Foster snapped, "you had schoolgirl problems like homework and getting a boy to notice you and he had different problems so he had to deal with them differently didn't he?"

"You're an adult, Foster, and you have given up your great love because what he was doing was wrong. You did it to keep him from hurting innocent people."

"Yes and you have left your brother while you're clearly worried about him so you can look after me because you're an adult too! Priorities and ethics change Ginny. You are not a giggling little schoolgirl anymore. There was nothing wrong with how you acted back then and nothing wrong with how you're acting now."

"But I'd hide him!" Ginny heard herself yelling as she rose from the table.

Foster stared up at her and blinked in shock.

"If they tried to take my brother away from his family, for the good of everyone else, I'd hide him from them."

* * *

'_Arthur no! How could you do this to me? I'm your brother!'_

The day was bright and sunny, the breeze was warm, and inside his chest Ron felt frozen. The pain of what he was doing, what he'd allowed to happen, was too much and he turned his head away to blink tears from his burning eyes. His mother was beside him and looked so much younger as she pulled him into her arms.

'_Come here my love, it's for the best, you know he can't be near the children when he's like this. He's not safe.'_

'_ARTHUR!'_

The scream rattled his bones and reverberated around his head like horse brasses tumbling down a flight of stone stairs. He glanced back to see the two Healers wrestling his brother out of the garden and towards a van with bars at the windows and cushioning charms lining the interior.

It was like the Knight Bus only this was St Mungo's own special transportation when unstable witches or wizards needed to be taken to Bedlam, the hidden magical wing of the Muggle psychiatric hospital St Mary of Bethlehem, and the mere sight of it had sent Bilius into a frenzy of panic.

'_It'll find me there Arthur...you have to let me hide from it here. I've seen it I tell you. The GRIM!'_

He wanted to pull out his hair, punch a wall, and shout at the top of his lungs. He wanted to do anything to drown out the sound of Bilius' screams and the pain in his chest of having handed him over...betrayed him.

'_I'm sorry Bil-Bilius,_' the emotional voice choked it's way out of his throat and was soon followed by sobs.

'_Mummy?'_ a small voice piped up from the kitchen door.

Dread and shame filled him and he hid in the mass of red hair falling around him.

'_Fred, George, why have you brought the babies out here?'_

He looked down and saw the young twins, each clutching a crying younger sibling, Fred was fighting to hold onto a toddler aged Ron while George was rocking baby Ginny as she screamed until she was puce in the cheeks.

'_Why are those men taking Uncle Bilius?'_ Fred asked, sounding frightened.

'_Percy! Percy I told you to keep them inside!'_ their mother screeched.

Soon a tearful young Percy hurried across the kitchen, bumping into chairs and the corner of the table, and fumbled for the door with his outstretched hands.

'_Fred and George did magic on me! They grew my eyelashes over my eyes and I can't stop them growing. They did magic and they're only little, tell them they're not allowed Mum!'_

'_Get inside now!'_ she bellowed, body shaking against him as he clung to her.

'_Molly I've changed my mind, he's not that dangerous, let's call it off.'_

Ron felt the despair within his father as he spoke; he shook and crumpled as Bilius cried out again.

'_Arthur I'll die in there within the week! You know I will! Arthur please!'_

'_Daddy he doesn't want to go with them.'_ George pleaded but soon two heavy doors slammed and a loud bang sent the van on its way to Bedlam.

The noise jolted Ron from his sleep and he sat up, got tangled in the sheets, and fell over the side of the bed and onto the floor with a thump.

While he trembled all over and fought to catch his breath he could hear Harry fumbling for his wand and his glasses in the bed beside him and thundering footsteps on the stairs below.

"Oh shit," Ron gasped as he rolled over into his hands and knees and vomited.

"_Lumos!_" Harry said with urgency and soon Ron was able to see the pool of his own sick growing beneath him.

His shoulders hunched, his body heaved, and soon another retch was forcing its way up his throat.

"Ron what is it? Do you need a doct-Healer? Do you want your Mum?" Harry was asking him as his hand rubbed up and down Ron's back.

The bedroom door burst open and his Dad staggered in.

"It's ok Harry, I've got him, you go back to bed," the panting older wizard said as he grabbed hold of Ron by the arm and pulled him up and swung the limp arm around his neck, "let's get you to the bathroom to clean yourself up and have a drink of water eh son?"

"Just a," Ron said before swallowing down a mini gag, "Just a bad dream Dad."

"I know, I'm sorry," his father whispered to him shakily, as the two of them staggered out of the room and down the landing towards the bathroom door.

"I didn't...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to..." Ron babbled at him as they bumped off walls until they fell into the bathroom and sat, heavily, on the edge of the bath tub.

"It was my fault," his father said with a frightened smile, "all my fault. I crashed into your sleep, there's nothing for you to apologise for son."

"But Dad..." Ron choked as he looked the old man in the eye.

"No Ron, stop it," he ordered, firmly.

"What was wrong with Uncle Bilius, Dad?" Ron asked, unsure whether he really wanted to know.

"Ron, Bilius was _ill_, you hear me?"

"Like me?" Ron shivered, "That's why you dreamed about it isn't it? You think I'm like Uncle Bilius?"

"No," Arthur said as he gripped Ron by the shoulders, tightly, "you...are..._different_!"

Ron felt his head pounding, his throat aching as if he was trying to swallow a fist, and his t shirt sticking to his back from the cold sweat that coated his skin.

"I don't wanna go to Bedlam Dad," he croaked, pathetically.

His father looked him in the eye and then pulled Ron into him, holding him tightly, and rocked the both of them from side to side on their knees.

"Never Ron," he swore to his son, shakily, "I will never let them take you away."

---

_A/N Bedlam, __St. Mary of Bethlehem Hospital in London, is __the world's oldest psychiatric hospital_

_It has become a pejorative colloquialism for a mental hospital or institution. _


	6. 5 Shedding Some Light

**Shedding Some Light**

The sun warmed his face and the covers around him were warm and toasty so he didn't bother to open his eyes when he woke.

His head didn't hurt. There was a sweet taste in his mouth and he smacked his lips and remembered his Dad pouring him a hot toddy to send him back to sleep and get the taste of vomit out of his mouth.

He smiled as he thought about his father and then his contentment became a tight knot in his stomach as he remembered why they were both up in the early hours of the morning. He scrunched up his face and drew his knees up to his chest; body balled into the foetal position, and sighed deeply.

A soft, tender hand stroked his hair away from his face and he cracked an eyelid open. Hermione was sitting beside his bed, book open on her lap, and she was smiling at him.

"Good afternoon," she said as she closed the book and leaned forward to kiss his forehead.

"Afternoon?" Ron frowned as he let an arm escape from the covers and squeezed her hand.

"It's a quarter past three Ron, you slept like a troll after your Dad spiked your toddy," Hermione said as she looked at him sympathetically.

"Why does that sentence sound dirty?" Ron said with a grunt as he sat up in his bed.

Hermione laughed and she rose from her chair, set the heavy book upon the seat, and dropped down onto the side of Ron's bed so she could wrap her arms around him and give him a hug. Ron closed his eyes and smiled into her bushy hair.

"Do you feel better?" she spoke into the side of his head before kissing his temple, tenderly.

Ron sighed deeply and curled his long arms around her body, tightening them as he nestled his head into the crook of her neck.

"Physically I'm feeling great," he mumbled, "I'm just remembering that I had one of Dad's nightmares with him and that wasn't so great."

Hermione's hand rubbed up and down his back and they held each other for a few minutes. Ron's body was warm and Hermione's was soft. Her hair fell forward like a big brown cocoon around their faces and he liked how secure he felt, hidden away within her.

"Why aren't you at work?" Ron asked her, realising that it was the middle of a working day for normal people who didn't have minds like sponges.

"Because my boyfriend needs me," she answered, rubbing the back of his head with her fingers, "and I need my boyfriend."

Ron was drifting off to sleep again, he felt so comfortable and secure, and he just managed to hum back at her in return.

"You must be hungry by now," Hermione said, fingers weaving through his hair and pads of her fingertips massaging his scalp.

"Lay with me," Ron murmured, ignoring her reminder that he'd missed both breakfast and lunch and hoping to snooze through until dinner time when he could stuff his face, "get in, get under the covers and just...be here."

He had his eyes closed, lids heavy, and felt her lifting the covers and wriggling into the side of his body.

"You're not worried I might project thoughts into you?" she asked as she settled her head upon his chest.

"Nuh," Ron said, almost purring, "you stop thinking when you're touching me. 'S long as you stay close we'll be fine."

* * *

"Hermione dear?"

Hermione flinched and jerked awake in Ron's arms. Molly Weasley was hovering over them, smiling awkwardly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to disturb Ron, is he still peaceful?" the fretful mother asked.

"He's much better, yes," Hermione flushed, "he er...he asked me to get in with him. He feels better if I'm...cuddling him, that's what he said. That's all it is, I have my clothes on, look!"

Hermione was about to pull back the covers but Molly chuckled and patted the blankets back down again.

"Don't panic dear; you don't get seven children by being a prude you know?"

Hermione tried to laugh but her embarrassment was still too strong.

"I didn't want you to think we were...while he's supposed to be resting, you know?" Hermione cringed.

"Honestly Hermione," Molly said as she sat in the vacated chair beside the bed, "the only rest he seems to get is when he knows you're with him. Arthur feels dreadful that he disturbed him last night."

"There was nothing he could have done to keep it from happening Mrs Weasley," Hermione said, shifting her weight beneath Ron so his arms were coiled about her thighs and his head was resting upon her stomach.

"But he always feels better when you're the one taking care of him," Molly said, eyes downcast, avoiding looking at her youngest son, "I don't know if he's noticed but I've been keeping a distance ever since this began. I'm emotional enough ordinarily, I can't imagine what I'd send flying into his head if I lost my composure."

"Mrs Weasley, George is already backing off after what Ron saw in his head, Bill is staying away and Fleur's worried that her Veela qualities will make Ron even more susceptible."

"Ginny sent an owl," Molly jumped in, "she wants to be here for him but her job..."

"And Harry isn't backing off either, it's not just me," Hermione said, wondering how she'd feel if Ron turned to somebody other than her for comfort, "you've always been Ron's safety net. He's not living at home because he has nowhere else to go; he's here because you make him feel safe."

Molly sniffed and fussed with her pinafore.

"Thank you dear, so I just came up to leave some chocolate for him when he wakes up," Molly pulled a slab of chocolate out of her pocket and set it upon Ron's bedside table before heaving herself up out of the chair, "I don't like how long it's been since he ate something."

"Well he won't refuse chocolate," Hermione grinned, "I'll give him and nudge and make him come downstairs in a little while."

Molly looked happy with that and headed for the door.

"Oh, Mrs Weasley, what did Ginny say in her letter? Is her first case going well?"

"She didn't say," Molly smiled, affection for her daughter clearly evident, "all she had was a list of questions about her brother...and a message for Harry. I'll make an early start on the dinner so there's something ready when Ronnie comes downstairs."

Hermione nodded and then looked down at Ron's peaceful face. She stroked his cheek with her thumb and then reached over to the bar of chocolate and broke off a chunk. Wafting it beneath his long nose she cooed to him, playfully.

"Ronald...Ro-on...chocolate..."

Ron's nose crinkled a little and he frowned as he opened his eyes. He looked at Hermione, grinning down at him and then the chunk of chocolate being waved before him. His eyes lit up and he lunged for the chocolate, sucking her finger and thumb into his mouth, up to the knuckle.

"Mmmmm."

* * *

_Ginny,_

_Are you freaking out about the assignment and deflecting it all at me or what?_

_I'm fine, Kingsley isn't letting them get away with anything and no we haven't come up with anything yet. Don't worry about me, you're supposed to be watching over a witness remember?_

_I don't know what they're gonna do about assigning me a case, I'm not being treated like a threat to security any more but I can't really put in a position of trust like you have been because I can violate my protectee's privacy without warning._

_What?_

_Protectee's a word._

_It is!_

_Ok so Hermione reckons it's not but she can't be right all the time. Anyway, Mum's doing rhubarb crumble and custard for afters so I'd better go. Harry says hello. Actually Harry says a lot of lovey dovey crap but I'm not saying that to you – BLAGH!_

_So, keep your mind on the job and stop worrying. It's going to be all right._

_See ya soon (you annoying little madam),_

_Ron._

* * *

Ron was hyper due to the amount of sleep he'd had during the day and the amount of food he'd eaten when he woke up. Harry had been working hard and just wanted to collapse into his bed for a solid eight hours of well-earned rest.

"So what happened after that then?" Ron said, licking melted chocolate off his fingers and bouncing up and down on the springs of his sugar rush.

"Well we cautioned the women, who were still screeching about persecution of a minority, and arrested the man and threw him in the cells for the night." Harry removed his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose with a small groan.

"Persecution? How was it persecution? What did they think was persecution, Harry?"

"They think that the new, post-war, Ministry are pro Muggle and Muggleborn and unless a pureblood family can prove they fought against Voldemort that we assume they are Death eaters and are trying to fit them up for unsolved crimes to punish them," Harry said with a sigh as he pushed his glasses on again.

"That's bollocks!" Ron said, jumping to his feet and looking around for something to do with his hands while talking to Harry, "You know what that is Harry? That's guilt that is. That's guilt for not doing enough and it's their problem, not yours. Wanna play a game of che...no Quidditch! Night time Quidditch, how long has it been mate?"

"Ron I really..."

"It's been years!" Ron said, eyes wide, "Even back then it was really dodgy to go on night practices because of the You-Know-Mort thing."

"You-Know-Mort?" Harry blinked and stared at Ron, wary of his energy level.

"But we're Morty-free these days, we can play Quidditch all night if we want to," Ron beamed before quivering with exhilaration, "We should do that! One on one, you and me, enchant some Quaffles to come at me and let the Snitch and the Bludgers go and see how low I can keep the score through the hoops before you catch the Snitch!"

"Ron, seriously, it's late and I have wor-"

"Or we could fly!" Ron said as he pulled out his broom and immediately forgot about the rest of the Quidditch things, "We could fly all night, it's dark and no-one will see us, we can fly wherever we want."

"I need to sleep Ron," Harry said, "and you need," he jumped up from his bed and wrestled the broomstick from his hand and then the chocolate bar from his back pocket, "to lay off the chocolate and lay on your bed with a nice hot...tranquilliser or something."

"Bu-" Ron began to protest, but Harry held up a finger to silence him.

"You're slightly crazed Ron, you've slept all day and I've been on my feet so now, this particular time of the day, is when I sleep ok?"

Ron looked at him with great annoyance.

"I'd have worked if they hadn't drugged me you know? I'd have been working too!"

"Ron, I wasn't calling you lazy or anything," Harry said, shoulders falling heavily and voice tired.

"Well why did you just use the word lazy then? That's what you think isn't it? My Dad spiked me in the middle of the night, what was I supposed to do?" Ron yelled.

"I...no...you..." Harry sputtered.

There were heavy footsteps on the landing and the door burst open behind Ron. George strode in and grabbed Ron from behind, lifting him off his feet and carrying him out of the room with him.

"Ok Ronnie, leave Harry alone and come running with me."

"What? Why are you here?" Ron demanded as the two brothers disappeared down the stairs.

"We're going running like we did in Quidditch training, back then it was to build up stamina but this time it's to burn off energy. Now say g'night to Harry." George's voice was getting father away now and Harry chuckled to himself.

"'Night Harry!" Ron bellowed up the stairs.

Harry flung himself back on the bed and heaved an almighty sigh of relief.

"Thank you George."

* * *

Ron couldn't run any more.

His legs were like lead and his lungs burned despite the chill in the air. He put his hands on his knees and gasped for breath, hair sticking to his face, and t shirt clinging to his back.

"Had en...had enough?" George puffed as he massaged a stitch in his side and grimaced.

"Uh-huh," was all Ron could manage, nodding his head and closing his eyes.

"Gonna sleep properly then yeah?" George said as he slapped his hand onto Ron's back and moved it forward to grip him by the shoulder. He pulled Ron upright and gave him a weary smile.

"Yeah, cheers George," Ron exhaled, deeply, "thanks for, y'know...that?"

George shoved Ron ahead of him and the two of them set off walking back to the Burrow.

"So, little brother, you are all over the place these days."

"Well what d'ya expect? I have no control over my Legilimency." Ron panted as he slung his heavy arm around George's shoulders.

"Not that Ronniekins," George said with a knowing arch of the eyebrow, "you saw all my crap...now show me yours."

Ron frowned at him.

"I can't send thoughts out and besides, you know all my crap. I'm scared of spiders, I got attacked by a brain, I got poisoned on my birthday..."

"You spent your whole life thinking Fred hated you and then Fred died without telling you he didn't?" George offered.

Ron let his arm fall away from George's shoulders.

"We went over all that, you know it already."

"You've killed people, you never talked about that."

"Neither have you," Ron shot back, darkly.

"You were there when Fred died and I wasn't!" George blurted.

"I wasn't there when Hermione was tortured, or when Harry gave up his life, or when Ginny got taken into the Chamber of Secrets, or when Dad got attacked by the snake..."

"We fucked off and left you at that school with Umbridge and we should have stayed there with you and the DA. We should have gone to the Ministry with you. You and Ginny wouldn't have got hurt."

"I'm sorry he's dead and I'm not ok?" Ron yelled.

George gave him a hard smack around the face, eyes livid.

Ron took the hit and stared at his shaking brother with shining eyes reflecting the moon.

"Why does my life have to be so hard?" he asked his brother, voice catching at the back of his throat.

"I dunno Ronnie," George said as he hugged his arms to himself.

"I can't even have a job can I, not with this?"

"You can work with me whenever you want," George said, firmly.

"They took Uncle Bilius to Bedlam," Ron whispered to himself.

"Uncle Bilius was mental, he was always mental, this is something that happened to you while you were helping people."

"But why?" Ron snapped, "Harry wore the locket, Hermione wore the locket, neither of them got a head fuck from it. Something had to have been wrong with my brain before that happened for th-"

"Look at your arms Ronnie!" George barked, "Scars, from secretly contained brains that do who knows what, and you got a serious head injury when you were a first year, Did we ever find out what Pettigrew hit you with when he escaped? On top of all that you took a fatal dose of poison and you wonder why you were worst affected? Ron you should be dead more times than Harry!"

Ron snorted out a laugh.

"That locket was piled on top of a lot of stuff that Harry and Hermione didn't have and despite that you didn't hurt either of them. Do you not understand how fucking strong you are you little prat?"

Ron was about to shove George in the chest and roll his eyes when he was seized by a diamond splinter headache, accompanied by an image of the twins carrying a parcel to the gates of Hogwarts and being greeted by Professor Sprout.

'_You're here for Ronald of course, terrible...just terrible, I don't think the school can deal with another dead student so soon after Diggory._'

'_What?_'

Ron shook his head and was back in the dark, leaning against George's chest while the older man gritted his teeth and pushed Ron back out again using Occulmancy.

"Fuck, sorry!" Ron hissed as he rubbed his hand hard against his forehead.

"My fault," George shook his head to clear it, "got emotional, my fault. You all right?"

"Killer headache but otherwise, yeah I'm fine." Ron winced, "Sprout told you I was dead?"

"She got third or fourth hand information so the story got distorted, yeah. Fred was actually sick on her shoes before McGonagall came rushing over to put us right. You sure you're gonna be ok to walk home?"

Ron fumbled in his pocket for the Deluminator and nodded.

"Let's just follow the lights back and go to bed...not together," Ron added quickly, "not after last time."

Ron clicked the Deluminator as George began protesting.

"I didn't mean to spoon you! I was asleep and you were only eight."

The tiny balls of light whirled out of the device and lit the way back to the Burrow but Ron was frozen on the spot and blinking his eyes as if he was seeing something clearly for the first time in a long time.

"Ronnie?" George asked him, placing a hand on his arm and giving him a quick shake.

Ron looked up at his brother and a smile began to spread across his face.

"I'm fine," he said, in disbelief.

"You look freaked out," George said, unconvinced.

Ron smiled wider and lifted the Deluminator in his hand. He looked at it and let out a relieved laugh.

"When I clicked it," he said, hope clear in his voice, "it took my headache away."

"What?" George gaped, eyes bulging.

"It's like it sucked the pain out of my head."

George's face broke into a wide grin.

"The Deluminator helps?"

"It really did," Ron nodded, excitedly.

"There's something that makes you feel better? There's something that makes your head feel better?" George bounced on the balls of his feet, "so the Healers, the Aurors, they might be able to do something for you now?"

"Yeah," Ron said, with nervous excitement.

They grinned at each other for a moment.

"Race ya back to the Burrow!" George said before sprinting after the glowing balls of light.


	7. 6 Trial and Error

**Trial and Error**

"I'm taking charge of this whole test Ron," Kingsley said as he gripped Ron's shoulders and looked him in the eye, "you know you can trust me and I promise I won't let you get pushed too hard."

"It's ok Kingsley, do whatever you want, I'm ready." Ron nodded with a confident smile.

"No, Ron," Kingsley said sternly, "this is why those clumsy dolts made a mess of things last time. You may be in training but you are still a grown man with the same rights as anyone. They were supposed to be treating you, not experimenting on you."

Ron hung his head, embarrassed.

"I was a bit eager too," he muttered with a shrug.

"And they took advantage of your eagerness and pushed their luck," Kingsley said sharply, "damaging your brain was not a risk to be taken, it was something to be avoided at all costs."

"It was just a headache Kingsley," Ron said as he shuffled his feet, awkwardly.

"Stop making excuses for them, they tried to use you and when they found out they couldn't they blamed you instead."

The firm hand clapped down on his shoulder, bracingly, and Kingsley smiled.

"Your Deluminator helped your head during an...what are we calling them?"

"Um...flashes?" Ron proposed.

"Sounds menopausal to me, how about episodes?"

"I dunno," Ron shrugged and winced, "it makes me sound a bit...y'know?"

"Hmmm," Kingsley said, thoughtfully.

"Channelling?" Ron offered.

"No," Kingsley shook his head firmly, "you mustn't let people think you can do that otherwise people will be after you to use as conduit. You'd be a tool for spying on people and they'll do all sorts of damage trying to get you to release the information to them."

"Well what is it that happens to me then?" Ron huffed.

"Extrication," Kingsley said as he stood up straight. "you are pulled in and you come away with thoughts, feelings and memories. The extrication is painful and exhausting for you and a mental and emotional assault to the other person. The Deluminator might be able to fight of the drag into the minds of others. It certainly helped you with the pain."

"So am I the one at fault or them? Is it me invading their mind or are they seeping into mine?"

Ron wasn't sure if either was more preferable than the other and sat down to push his hand through his hair with a sigh.

"No matter what it is that's happening, you are in no way at fault, understand Ron?" Kingsley said as he took the Deluminator and turned it over in his fingers while sitting down at Ron's side.

Ron propped his head up on the heel of his palm and slouched over, elbow on his knee, while watching Kingsley examining the Deluminator.

"May I?" the larger man asked.

"Go ahead," Ron nodded and watched as Kingsley clicked the Deluminator open and all the light from the room was sucked into it.

"Ah," Shacklebolt said before clicking again and the lights all returned to the room, "so it returns to its usual function unless you need it to do something else?"

"Don't ask me how but it always knows what I need and when I need it." Ron shrugged.

Kingsley looked at Ron for a moment, in deep thought, and then leaned over, arms settled on his own knees so they were both hunched forward with their heads together.

"How are your family taking this?" he asked, so softly that it sounded strange in his deep voice.

"Well they worry, they think they're hurting me so they...try to keep a distance I think. George has been great; he's trying to help me I think."

"You're lucky," Kingsley smiled, "so many of your family survived the battle. I know you all miss Fred terribly but there are so many of you Weasleys...well to be honest I thought I'd see more of you fall before the end. It's nice to be wrong sometimes."

Ron drew in a shuddering breath and closed his eyes. Kingsley looked at him with narrowed eyes and then looked away.

"Take the Deluminator Ron," he said before staring off into the middle distance and smiling, "I had a sister and a brother, both dead now, and I wasn't there for either of their deaths. I wasn't there when my parents died either. My whole family, Ron, gone in the space of a year, and I saw none of it. I was always at a different battle, always a minute too late, always undercover or in hiding."

Kingsley felt his mind wandering back to the aftermath of a fight to the death during the first war and could smell the smoke and the blood.

"Now Ron, click it now!" the large Auror said.

He felt Ron shaking beside him and heard the click. Three balls of blue light floated from the device and sank into Ron's head. Kingsley braced Ron's body as he swayed and the Deluminator completed its work.

"That wa...wow!" Ron said as he leaned into Kingsley's side, heavily.

"Did you see anything? Did you see into my head?" the Auror demanded.

"I felt...like a pull or something, and I could smell burning an-and then you told me to click and my head cleared and it was gone again." Ron sat up as he spoke and exhaled with relief before frowning and looking at Kingsley with suspicion, "did you let me in? Was it you opening up or did I try to push through?"

"I got you to think about your family on a very emotional level and there was nothing. You aren't instigating anything Ron," Kingsley said, confidently, "when I thought about my family and let my mind wander back to the past it was as if you were caught on my sleeve and overbalancing as I set off. I was taking you with me. It wasn't consciously but it was me pulling you."

"Then I used the Deluminator and...I got free, the snag or whatever it was, however I was attached to you was shaken off and I could pull away."

"Yes Ron," Kingsley smiled, broadly, "you could pull away. You can chose to pull back and not go inside somebody's head. The Deluminator gets rid of the drag."

Ron looked down to the device and smiled at it, as if he was silently thanking Dumbledore for giving him something that was always adapting to be of help to him, and then gripped it tightly.

"It's the scars isn't it?" Ron's smile faded into sadness, "my brain scars are what's latching onto people and snagging on people's thoughts as their minds drift away."

"Possibly," Kingsley nodded, "probably, but you have a choice now. You have some control over this. Give it some time and some practice and soon you'll be clicking before anybody else even knows they were pulling you in."

"Huh," Ron said as he tightened his fist around the Deluminator and gave a lopsided smile, "so I might be able to keep this Auror thing up after all then eh?"

"Weasley," Kingsley said as he rose from his chair, "I wouldn't want this department without you."

* * *

Ginny was doing her hourly perimeter check when the thud grabbed her attention and she spun around on the spot, wand drawn.

Instantly her eyes glittered with joy and she flung herself forward onto her knees to cling to her brother, who was tossing aside his Portkey.

"You're here! Why are you here? Is everything alright? Are you alright? Oh my God Ron, you're in your robes...you're on the job. They're letting you be an Auror aren't they?"

Ron huffed and shook his head in amusement as he got to his feet.

"Blimey Ginny, calm it down will ya?"

"Well I'm bored out of my mind out here and I never got to hear anything from you and...and...you're here!"

Ron hugged his sister, knowing how much she had been fretting about his tests and treatment from the other Aurors, and she clung to him and squeezed so hard that his ribs hurt. Then, as quickly as she'd flung herself at him, she let go and punched him in the chest.

"What are you doing sneaking up here without warning?"

"They wanted to give me an assignment and Kingsley thought it'd be better if I practiced my new...preventative measure around somebody who trusted me."

"Preventative measure?" Ginny frowned, hoping that Ron wasn't being put though anything unpleasant to regain control of his own mind.

"I need to get the timing right but we found out that the Deluminator helps me. Once I get the knack for it I won't jump into anybody's head and there'll be no more headaches," Ron said with a bright smile.

"That's great Ron!" Ginny said as she bounced before him on the balls of her feet, "So you have it with you?"

Ron huffed.

"No, I left it at home, of _course_ I have it with me you twat!"

Ron pulled the Deluminator out of his pocket and held it up before his mouth.

"And I have to get into the habit of clicking it in front of my mouth too because Kingsley put a charm on it to make it look like one of those things Muggles with asthma put in their mouths to breath properly. If anyone catches me using it we just tell them I have asthma, cool eh?"

"Well yeah but you're not exactly going to be out in the open with Muggles to see you are you?" Ginny frowned, "This assignment is dull as dishwater, we don't get to leave the cottage."

"Ahhh, _you_ didn't get to leave the cottage because you were here alone with your witness, when there are two of us one can stay in and one can go out. I have some papers you have to look through, easy enough really, if anyone asks I'm your brother."

"Oh that's a leap of imagination!" Ginny scoffed as she took the papers from him and Ron laughed.

"I'm your asthmatic brother who has come to the countryside for the clean air after having a bad attack and having to go to hospital." Ron said as he gave his sister a shove and then set off with her toward the cottage.

"Kingsley's gonna use the brother and sister thing a lot isn't he? It's a great cover story for one and for another...it's plainly true!"

Ginny looked at Ron who looked back at her and pulled an insolent face.

"Well Cinderella did have ugly sisters so anything's possible I s'pose."

Ginny punched him in the arm and stomped into the cottage while Ron sniggered and rubbed at his sore bicep.

"Foster, my brother's here and I'm not speaking to him!" Ginny yelled as she passed the living room.

* * *

"You sent him away?" Molly snapped as she slammed both palms flat on the kitchen table and rose up from her chair to tower over Kingsley, who sat opposite.

"He was fit for duty and he wanted an assignment right away," Kingsley began to explain.

"But..." Molly began before being interrupted by Harry.

"No, she's right," Harry said as he fixed his eyes on Kingsley, fiercely, "he clicks his Deluminator and doesn't go mind jumping and you send him off somewhere he can't be contacted? What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking, _Mister_ Potter, that his sister would take good care of him and a safe assignment with a friendly face would be a good way to ease him into his new situation."

"He could have been assigned with me, _Mister_ Shacklebolt!" Harry snapped back.

"Harry," Arthur said, warningly, "Kingsley is your superior, show some respect."

"And Ron is your son and he's been sent away on a secret mission," Molly said, arms flapping wildly, "you can't seriously believe that Ginny is capable of keeping him in check. The two of them squabble and antagonise each other."

"Ginny's not got the patience to nurse him if his head plays up," Harry added, glad to have a very vocal Molly as his ally, "and Ron is a crap patient!"

"Ron is not an invalid and maybe if you all stopped treating him as if he was enfeebled or touched in the head then he could overcome this problem much better," Kingsley barked.

Molly and Harry both drew in deep breaths to argue back but George appeared at Kingsley's shoulder and silenced them with his fiercest glare.

"Ron is of age and he made a decision about his own life. Live with it and shut up!"

"George Weasley!" Molly gasped.

"Mum?" George threw back with defiance.

"You wanted him to beat this Legilimency thing and he's on his way to doing it," Arthur patted the back of his wife's hand as he spoke.

"And yeah Harry, Ron and Ginny fight a lot, but they were best friends before you came along and they will always look after each other. You should have more faith in your best friend and your girlfriend. If you don't...you don't deserve them."

* * *

_Hermione,_

_Sorry I didn't get to talk to you about all this new stuff, the Deluminator fixing my head and the assignment and all that, but I had the chance to take an assignment just like all the other normal trainees and I had to take it._

_You get that don't you? You get what it's like to have to take on challenges?_

_I'll write to you, although I can't actually tell you anything, but I'll write letters about nothing if you want me to._

_Kinda like this one really, I can't tell you much other than Ginny says hello._

_I had Jacket spud with baked beans for dinner, there, that's something eh?_

_See you soon._

_Ron_

"Put love Ron," Ginny said from her spot, stealthily hovering over his right shoulder.

"No," Ron said as he rolled up the parchment and blushed in the ears.

"But not putting it is as good as making a point of not saying it."

"What?" Ron frowned as he turned in his seat and looked at her with his best 'women are mental' expression.

"It's like you're making it very clear that you don't love her."

"No," Ron said, sure that Ginny was winding him up, "not saying anything other than my name is just me signing off a letter but if I put love...she'll think I'm trying to tell her something."

"Yes!" Ginny screeched, "That you _love_ her!"

"No, it'll look like I'm saying it as a way of signing off a letter. If I say it I should say it, y'know, with my voice and actually to her in person."

"Signing off a letter 'love Ron' doesn't mean you're making a personal declaration that advances your relationship," Ginny huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Then why are you going on at me to write it then?"

"Because you didn't put anything and that's a glaringly meaningful omission," Ginny said as Foster wandered into the room and frowned at the sibling argument.

"Fine, I'll put 'from Ron' if that'll make you happy." Ron said with a tut as he unfurled the parchment again.

"No!" Foster yelped, "don't put 'from', that's worse than nothing at all. That's practically an insult!"

"Oh Merlin's nutsack!" Ron groaned as he flung himself over the table, dramatically.

* * *

Ginny was used to the night watch and Ron had had a long day so she'd told him to go to bed and that she'd wake him at half past four in the morning to take over so she could get some sleep.

After much protestation that it was against the law to get up at half past four in the morning he'd taken a nip of sleeping draught and thrown himself onto Ginny's bed.

As she wrestled the covers from under him and draped them over him Foster appeared at the door and laughed softly to herself. Ginny looked over her shoulder and gave a smile and a sigh of resignation.

"Yes, I suppose he is endearing if he's not yours to deal with."

"Oh come off it Ginny," Foster said with a knowing look, "the whole time you were away from him all you did was fret and as soon as he arrived you started aggravating each other. You are so typically the babies of the family."

"We are not!" Ginny protested, "He is, I'm not, I have to suffer him."

"So you don't resent that you're the youngest and at the same time play up on it to get your own way?" Foster grinned.

"No," Ginny said, primly, as she lifted her chin and strode from the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Foster looked at her for a moment before looking back at the closed door, behind which Ron was sleeping.

"I don't think he's up for the job. This is about my personal safety you know and I might have to contact the Auror offices and tell them I want a fit Auror guarding me."

"What?" Ginny said, eyes wide and livid, "You've only just met him. You don't know what he's capable of. He fought off the most powerful of Voldemort's Death Eaters when he was only just sixteen!"

"Ginny," Foster smirked.

"They didn't even take him down, he had an accident while he was in a confused state and they still didn't beat him!" Ginny yelled; glad that the steeping draught was strong enough for her brother not to wake with all this noise.

"Ginny," Foster said again, much louder this time, "I'm making a point."

"What?" Ginny blinked.

"You have been on that boys back since he got here, you weren't speaking to him before he'd even set foot inside the house, but when he's away or when somebody is talking badly about him...look at you go. You're such a typical sister it's hysterical!"

"Well...you're...I'm not a baby! You didn't prove that!" Ginny said in desperation, "Ha!"

Foster bent double with laughter.

"I'm not a typical baby girl of the family," Ginny protested, getting angry, "I'm not!"

As she spoke she stamped her foot an instantly regretted it as Foster threw back her head and howled with laughter. Ginny huffed and pushed past her charge and down the hall to the living room.

"Oh come on Ginny, I think it's nice that you jump to defend him. I know I would if I had a brother."

"Well of course I would but he is a pain in the neck and he always treats me as if I need protecting while he goes off and takes all sorts of stupid risks." Ginny flailed her arms wildly.

"Just him or all your brothers?" Foster asked as she sat down on the tatty sofa and watched as Ginny paced.

"_Everybody_!" Ginny proclaimed, "Even my boyfriend does it. I was part of that battle in Hogwarts too but they all forget that don't they?"

"You fought when you were a schoolgirl just like Ron did?"

"Are you calling Ron a schoolgirl?" Ginny said, lip curling into a very slight smile as she stopped her pacing.

"Well I know I wouldn't mind seeing him in a uniform," Foster said with a waggle of the eyebrows.

Ginny winced and sat down in the armchair across from Foster.

"He um...he has a girlfriend, sorry...and...yeuch!" Ginny shuddered and laughed.

"Oh of course he does, they all do," Foster sighed, "but that's not what we're talking about is it? You said you fought in battle, so do you still feel like you're getting special baby girl treatment?"

"Yeah," Ginny slumped in her seat, "I could wipe out every Death Eater single handed and they'd still tell me to be careful when I went off on a safe assignment like this."

Foster propped her head up on her crooked arm and blinked.

"So how many did you kill then? In the battle I mean, if you don't mind me asking?"

Ginny looked at Foster, drew in a deep breath and then looked away and chewed on her lip thoughtfully.

"Sorry, bad memories, shouldn't have sa-"

"None," Ginny interrupted, "I didn't get a single one of them. They told me to wait behind in the safe area because I was underage. I kicked up a stink, threw the odd tantrum or two and later on some of them came back and needed the room and asked me to leave it for a little while but stay safe and out of the way."

"And did you?"

"Nope," Ginny said, grimly, "I practically danced out of there, grinning from ear to ear that I'd been able to play with the grown ups, and ran right into the tick of it to prove all my family wrong. I was gonna show them all. I was gonna flatten all the Death Eaters with my amazing flying snot spell and be a hero, or a heroine...but I don't like that, why can't a woman be a hero? Anyway, I charged into battle and saw dead bodies everywhere."

"God," Foster said with a shiver.

"I ran into that battle so cocky and smug and I got three steps into it and wanted to run back into the safe room again and go back to making lots of noise about how it wasn't fair and how I'd give them what for if I was allowed to go out and fight."

"Nothing wrong with being scared of slaughter Ginny, believe me, I know that feeling."

Ginny looked back at Foster and gave her a grateful smile.

"See I wanted to be better than all my brothers at the thing they were best at. I had to prove that being young didn't meant anything, being a girl didn't mean anything. I wanted to be better at complex magic than Bill, stronger than Charlie, cleverer than Percy, funnier than the twins..."

"What about Ron?"

"Ron...well I used to have a best friend who was always at my side and always took my side and always listened and understood." Ginny hugged her arms to herself and sighed, "Then he went to school and found other friends and didn't want to be around me any more, the silly little baby girl, so eventually I became quite confident in myself and my popularity and I made fun of him, humiliated him, and tried to make him a joke. He was just the butt of all my jokes."

"That's brothers and sisters; that's not just you and Ron," Foster said as she sat forward and fixed her eyes on the young Auror.

"Yeah but he ran into battles and stood his ground and not with a lucky potion running through his veins. He stood up to a man he though was a murderer when he was badly injured and scared and only fourteen and he was ready to die for his friend."

"So you wanted to fight to prove you could be like Ron?" Foster asked, "That doesn't sound like you think he's a joke to me."

"I don't, I didn't, I just have to put him down to make myself feel more impressive and do you know why? Do you know why, even after I got Harry's attentions and didn't need to perform my 'aren't I the greatest' act anymore I still had to surpass him."

"Ginny, seriously, you are not the only person to have suffered from sibling rivalry. Don't beat yourself up."

"But I ran into battle with a smug grin on my face and you know what my most significant contribution to the fight was?" Ginny looked fierce and angry with herself as she fixed her gaze on Foster.

"What?"

"My big moment was being saved from a fight I was losing to Bellatrix Lestrange..._by my mother_!"

Foster snorted and quickly covered her mouth to stifle the laugh. Ginny glared at her.

"It's not funny, it's humiliating!" She hissed.

Foster's shoulders shook and her giggles became audible. Ginny went red in the face.

"I was trying to prove to all my brothers what a powerful witch I was and my _Mum_, who doesn't do anything riskier than not wearing an apron when she dishes up the dinner, won a fight for me!"

Foster howled with uncontrollable laughter at this and Ginny grabbed a cushion from behind her and threw it very hard at the woman's head. The saggy beige thing with tassels and a picture of wallflowers on it bounced off Foster's face and still she laughed. Ginny huffed and tutted as her smile took over her scowl and soon she was swearing at the woman and laughing about the battle."

She was laughing about the battle of Hogwarts, the bloody slaughter, the place her brother was murdered...she was laughing and it really felt good.

* * *

_A/N Happy New Year to all the lovely people who take the time to read and actual new year snogs to those of you who take even more time to leave feedback._

_Sorry for the wait but there was Christmas and then New Year and my Mum's birthday and this week was my birthday. It's always been a busy time for me. Thank you for your patience and feedback on Ginny would be most appriciated...those who know me well know the two of us don't get along._


	8. 7 Orange Crush

**Orange Crush**

Ron sat on the back doorstep and watched the sun rising across the golden countryside. It was chilly but he had a warming charm on his cloak and it was pulled tightly around him as he enjoyed the dawn chorus of birds twittering away in the trees.

"You're a peaceful soul when you're on your own aren't you?"

He jumped at the sound at Foster's voice and had his wand pointed at her in an instant.

"Shit Foster, I could have hexed your brains out!"

Ron slumped against the doorframe and put the wand back inside his robes. Foster smiled and cringed apologetically as she joined him on the doorstep.

"Well that wasn't so peaceful, no."

Ron sighed and looked at her for a moment before removing his warm cloak and draping it around her shoulders. Foster almost smirked at this and Ron frowned.

"What?"

"Nothing, just that doing that for me was probably the most chivalrous thing to ever have happened to me in my life and I know for a fact that if your sister had been watching you wouldn't have even considered doing it for a second."

"I might have," Ron said, defensively.

"Really?" Foster arched an eyebrow, "Even if she became a sister about it and teased you for being all gentlemanly around a girl?"

"I would be protecting my protectee," Ron said with proud dignity.

"Is protectee a word?"

"Oh don't you start!" He huffed.

Foster laughed and extended her cloaked arm around Ron's shoulders to share the warmth. Her smile suddenly became self conscious and she lowered her eyes.

"Did Ginny tell you what I said about you?" she asked in a low tone.

"What did you say about me?" Ron asked, apprehensively.

Foster looked embarrassed and cast Ron a sideways glance. He could have sworn she was blushing and thought that if he put his hand to her face it would feel the heat of that blush.

"Nothing, something about a school uniform, but nothing really," she said as she shook her head and shrugged, "She said you had a girlfriend."

"I er...yeah." Ron nodded.

"But you don't say you love her in letters."

"I don't say I don't love her either." Ron said in annoyance.

"So you do then do you?"

"So I do what?"

"You do love her?"

"Not in a letter."

"But in person?"

"That's private."

"Do you love her in private?"

"If I told you it wouldn't be private."

"You can go on forever like this can't you?"

"I have five brothers, of course I can!" Ron said, throwing his arms wide and laughing.

Foster laughed too and they both relaxed in each other's company again. Ron turned his attention back to the sunrise and Foster was soon silent. As he gazed at the long shadows on the grass before him he felt his head become light and smelt a very masculine scent nearby. Just as he was going to draw his wand he realised it wasn't real, it was the pull from Foster's quiet contemplation. He fumbled for his Deluminator and clicked it.

He had been holding it upside down and between his knees but it still worked and the balls of light swirled out and sank into his head like cool air being fanned onto his face on a sweltering day.

"Ron?" Foster's voice echoed in his head.

Ron felt everything crisp and clear as he would have done had he just stepped out of a cold shower and smiled at the worried woman.

"Fine, yeah," he said with a relieved nod, "still didn't get it up to my mouth the way I'm supposed to but I beat ya didn't I?"

"Beat me?"

"You were daydreaming about some sweaty bloke and I was about to get dragged in and I realised what was happening and got to my Deluminator before it happened."

Foster looked at him for a moment, eyes pained, and the stood up from the doorstep and disappeared back inside the cottage. Ron jumped up and followed after her.

"No, Foster, wait," he called as he put the Deluminator back into his pocket, "I didn't see anything. I didn't go inside your head. That's a good thing, you still have your privacy."

"It's not you I'm angry at!" Foster snapped, spinning on the spot to face Ron but instantly turning away again, unable to face him for even a moment.

"Ok," Ron said, attempting to keep a calm head while his witness was having a bit of a moment, "as long as I didn't upset you I can...I'll go back to the doorstep and leave you alone if you like?"

"No, if you're around I can pay attention to you and not think back to...the man I'm comparing you to."

"Oh," Ron said, blinking as he realised the masculine smell had been Foster's sadistic boyfriend.

"I was just wondering how somebody who was so good to me, so loyal and attentive and who never once scared me or intimidated me; how could he have hurt so many people? How could he have enjoyed causing pain like he did and then come home to me and snuggle up in front of the fireplace?"

"Well, I'm sure it was no reflection on you. Nobody thinks you were condoning his behaviour because you didn't have to endure it. We all know that you had no idea what he was really like."

"But I do know what he's really like," Foster said, banging her fist on the kitchen table, "I know how he sleeps, I know the way he likes his eggs, I could tell if he was thirsty and I knew that he could tell if I put the milk in his tea first or last and I knew he preferred it last."

"Foster," Ron said, not used to such an open description of the inner workings of somebody's relationship poured out to him.

"I used to fall asleep with my head on his chest and feel safe and now I'm in hiding from him because he'll kill me to keep me from testifying to the Wizengamot. The thing is Ron; I'm still not scared of him. I still can't believe he'd hurt me."

Ron opened his mouth to tell her that he was unstable and a great risk to her safety but Foster held up her hand to keep his words inside.

"I can't believe he'd hurt me to shut me up but I can believe that he'd torture and slaughter you and your sister to get to me and this is why I'm doing this. I can believe he'd hurt other people, I saw it, and I don't want that to happen any more."

Ron smiled at Foster, sadly.

"Tracy Foster, don't let anyone ever tell you that you are selfish."

"Or that my name's Tracy Foster," Foster snorted.

"Huh?" Ron frowned.

"It's Foster Tracy, Ron. My first name's Foster."

"Oh, sorry, I'm just used to last naming everybody at the Auror department and everybody was calling you Foster rather than Tracy and...it just sounds more like a name the other way around. Sorry."

Foster chuckled and sighed as she relaxed in her chair.

"You are not the first, second or even tenth person to make that mistake so don't worry about it."

"Thanks," Ron grinned, "oh but don't tell Ginny I did that. She will torment me over the smallest things and make me feel like the biggest idiot."

"Ah, sisters!" Foster said wistfully.

"Can't live with 'em... Well d'you want a cup of tea?"

* * *

Ron was playing himself at wizard chess in the front garden when Ginny came out to take over his watch. She noticed Foster perched on the windowsill, watching him and realised that considering Foster's predicament, teasing her about her growing crush on Ron wasn't really appropriate.

"Who are you backing to win then?" Ginny asked as she approached Ron.

He looked up at her and puffed out his cheeks thoughtfully, spinning the board to counter attack his own move.

"Well I'm thinking both sides into a stalemate right now so anything could happen."

"Want me to take over so you get to win?" Ginny offered.

Ron shook his head.

"Nah, I really do want to be able to surprise myself and win one."

"You know that's not possible though right?" Ginny laughed, "You'll always know what your opponent's next move is, that kind of takes away the element of surprise y'know?"

Ron narrowed his eyes at his sister and smiled ruefully.

"You think if I let you take over I won't know what you're thinking? Ginny, you're the most predictable player in the family. You get distracted too easily and have this need to have symmetry that makes no logical strategic sense."

"Well listen to that," Ginny smirked, "I'll have to start calling you Heronomee."

"What?" Ron said with a squint of sibling annoyance.

"Well you _are _starting to talk like her."

"Oh shut up."

Ginny smirked to herself and watched him play for a while before clicking her tongue against her teeth and sighing in as casual a way she could manage.

"So did Hermione write back yet?"

"No," Ron said as he let his hand hover over the chess pieces and pondered his next instruction to them, "it has only been a day."

"Hmmm...yes," Ginny said before glancing around the countryside surrounding them as if she didn't have a care in the world, "y'know she'd have written back if you'd put 'love Ron' at the end of your letter?"

Ron huffed and got up from his seat to stomp back inside. Ginny looked very pleased with herself and took his seat in the front garden. The chess pieces looked very annoyed to now have their future in her hands and tried to persuade her to take over the other side's game rather than theirs.

Ginny glanced up to see Foster still sitting by the window. She was looking away and talking, obviously Ron must have gone into the living room and Foster had jumped at the chance to engage him in conversation. Ginny wondered why Ron was so popular with women when he was so inept at actually understanding them.

Hermione, Luna, Lavender... Ron managed to win them all over while being his usual gitty self. She twirled her finger around the head of the bishop until he got dizzy and fell over and the white king snorted while the black queen huffed, haughtily.

"Even you lot think he's great, what is it about my stupid brother that makes you al-"

There was a scream from inside the house and Ginny knocked over the chess board, pieces fleeing into the undergrowth, as she sprinted inside, drawing her wand and hoping that Ron wasn't passed out from his latest guideless tour of somebody's head.

Just as she bounded through the front door she saw Ron running out of the spare bedroom, with his wand held before him and Ginny realised that Foster hadn't been talking to him at all.

"There's somebody in there with her!" Ginny yelled.

"How did they get in? You were on bloody watch!"

"I thought it was yo-" Ginny called back before skidding to a halt on the rug outside the door and gasped at the sight before her.

"Oh fuck," Ron said as he clattered into her and saw the bloodied pile of feathers in the middle of the living room floor, "Pig?"

Just as Foster shook her head and stammered to explain what had happened Pigwidgeon flew into the back of Ron's head, happily attending to his master when called for, and Ron let out an 'oof' before grabbing the tiny owl and holding it to his chest with his free hand.

"That is an owl right?" Ron asked as he pointed down at the mound of blood and feathers.

Foster nodded and wiped her tear streaked face with the back of her hand.

"It's mine, m-my owl, she was a birthday present from...from..."

"It's okay Foster," Ginny said as she stepped inside the room, wand still covering the room, and put an arm around the shaken woman, "Ron take a look around the perimeter, see if the owl was sent ahead as a spy or if it was followed."

Ron nodded.

"I'll send a Patronus message to Kingsley too; let him know what's happened.

"Good idea, be careful," Ginny said before watching him leave and then swinging her wand arm in a wide circle to create an invisible barrier around the cottage and keep anybody from getting in or out without her knowing about it, "Now Foster, tell me what happened, who were you talking to?"

"Blaze, my owl," Foster sniffed, "she arrived with a letter and I was so pleased to see her...I didn't think. I took the letter and untied it from her leg and as soon as the tie was undone it whipped away from me and wrapped around her neck, broke it, and then it stripped the feathers and the flesh from her...at least...at least she didn't feel anything."

Foster crumpled into tears and Ginny lowered her wand and held her properly. Just as Foster closed her eyes tightly, tears squeezing from red, puffy ducts she gasped and gripped the back of Ginny's top.

"Foster?" Ginny asked as she felt the woman shaking all over.

Foster sobbed as if Ginny had just dredged up something painful from her past.

"Foster, what is it?" Ginny said as she pulled away from the consolatory hug and gripped her by the shoulders.

There was something in Foster's eyes, something that seemed to signal that she wasn't quite there, and then Ginny realised when she'd seen a look like that before. George had the same look on his face at the dinner table when Ron had been dragged into his head when he was lost in thought and memories of Fred.

"Ron!" Ginny yelled, releasing Foster and running for the front door.

She ran through the open door and outside, down the gravel path and towards her brother who was slumped heavily against the gate. There was an elderly Muggle woman holding his Deluminator against his mouth and trying to make it work while Ron's face was crumpled with the pain of his headache and his breaths were short and sharp.

"I've got it for you dear, take your puffer," the old lady was saying.

"It's ok, I'll help him, give it to me," Ginny said as she skidded to a halt and took the charmed Deluminator from the woman's hand, "Ron, it's Ginny, hold on to this with me and..."

Ginny pushed Ron's thumb down on the button of the Deluminator and it flicked open. The ball of blue light blasted out of it and hit him full in the face and Ron gasped, blinked and his knees buckled under him. Ginny supported him as he fell and lowered him to a kneeling position on the path while rubbing his back and sighing with relief.

"Is that a new one?" the old woman asked, squinting at the Deluminator, "It works much better than my Stanley's. Does it come on NHS prescription?"

A group of men arrived dressed in Muggle clothes and Ginny recognised them as Aurors. Three of them gathered around the woman to perform memory charms and usher her away without incident. Another group ran into the house to question Foster and examine the scene while Kingsley crouched before Ron and Ginny and spoke in a low tone.

"Is this an extrication?"

"What the hell is an extrication?" Ginny said, far too loudly.

"'s what we're calling the mind jumps," Ron said with a tentative shake of the head, "makes me sound less mental."

"Oh right," Ginny said as she leaned in close and lowered her voice again.

"So was it?" Kingsley pressed.

"I called you and had my wand in my hand and the Deluminator in my pocket and Foster was...she was so deep, so fast, I didn't have time."

"It's ok, Ron, the Muggle woman thought you were having an asthma attack and Foster was with me. She's fine."

"Weasley, what did you see?" Kingsley said with urgency.

"Deaths, pets, family members, grieving and funerals and then a dead body on the floor...covered in blood. Foster was screaming, screaming at her boyfriend, he did it. She was screaming at him and he looked at her with manic eyes, fucking scary looking fucker he was, and she was really frightened of him and then the blue hit and it all went away."

"New information Kingsley?" Ginny asked, anxiously, "Did we know she'd seen him with the body of one of his victims?"

"It matches her testimony completely," Kingsley said as she glanced over her shoulder and towards the cottage, "she's obviously realising just how dangerous it is that he knows she's testifying against him."

"So," Ron said, grunting as he got back to his feet, "she's getting a higher protective watch now? We're off the case already?"

"Are you serious?" Kingsley snorted as he clapped Ron on the back and then gripped him to keep him from toppling over, "Sorry, I forget how little there is of you sometimes."

"There's plenty of me, there's just too much of you!" Ron said, defensively.

Ginny laughed at this before stepping into the mini huddle to listen to her new orders.

"You both did fantastically well. You didn't dawdle with calling us in, you secured the perimeter and you were both in attendance within seconds of Miss Tracy's distress. You acted like professionals and not nervous novices or overly emotional friends of the witness."

"But he got an owl through, that's not supposed to be able to happen is it?" Ron said as he scanned the countryside, warily.

"He didn't follow or track the creature, he was using it as weapon but because of the spells your sister set up when she arrived the attack was kept contained and turned in on the owl instead of Miss Tracy."

"So she was supposed to be..." Ginny began, amazed that she'd actually performed a casual spell that ended up saving a life.

"She'd have been strangled and whipped, yes," Kingsley nodded.

Ron took a deep breath and let it out before taking another, more focused look at the surrounding area.

"Your spells worked Ginny, and Ron's message was precise and succinct. The Patronus arrived instantly and in the middle of an Auror briefing rather than on a bureaucratic Auror's desk so they could deploy a team. I know how they hammer it into you trainees that everything must have Ministry approval before you take action but this was spot on. By pass the paper pushers and send word direct to the reinforcements."

"I don't remember doing it deliberately," Ron mumbled, "it might have been an accident. I wouldn't praise me too much."

"Well I would and I am!" Kingsley said, firmly, "You too Ginny, fantastic spell work that saved the witness' life. I want the two of you to continue to protect this witness."

"But I messed it up," Ron said as he kicked at a stone on the ground, "what if there'd been a second wave? I'd have missed it because I was out of my head."

"Weasley, if your condition ever needs factoring into your assignments or if you need to be stood down or advised to seek a career elsewhere then I will be the man to tell you and I wouldn't beat around the bush. If you were a risk or your ability today was in question I would have said something by now. I didn't so you should keep your mouth shut."

"Don't expect him to listen to that," Ginny snorted.

"Well he'd better," Kingsley said with a fierce look at Ron, "because unless I am bringing you to account on something Weasley, I don't want to hear about it."

Ron looked at his feet and his ears turned red under his hair.

"If you're duelling and you miss your target you don't stop and turn to your second to dissect what a poor dueller you think you are, you keep duelling until you win or you lose. You are an Auror and you continue to do your duty until I have something to say about it. Are we clear?"

"Yes Auror Shacklebolt," Ron said as he lifted his head and looked the senior Auror in the eye.

"You play chess; you don't win by broadcasting the weakness in your game."

"So stop bloody whinging," Ginny added.

Ron threw a sideways scowl at his sister and Kingsley folded his arms and looked down at her.

"And you, you are an Auror and this is your partner. You don't have a brother on this job unless you are using your cover story. Correct me if I'm wrong but did you or did you not abandon the distressed witness to attend to your partner?"

"Wha...I..." Ginny stammered in disbelief.

"As hard as it is Auror Weasley, on a case, any case, your priority is the public. You need to protect the public, the witness, the victim at all costs. You put your life on the line to defend them and if the choice is to shield your assignment or shield a fellow Auror then you chose the assignment."

"But she was fine and I'd secured t-"

"You left the room, the building, to go to your partner and that is unacceptable. The surrounding area wasn't secured, the incident wasn't over, and reinforcements had not yet arrived and you left the witness unattended."

"Sorry Auror Shacklebolt," Ginny said, barely masking her anger.

"Being professional means no fishing for reassurance and no emotional choices on the job. Ron, you conduct yourself as if you have no weakness, you have no flaw, unless a superior calls you to account. Ginny, you have a witness to protect, a partner to work alongside with, and your family are where they should be, at home and not on the job."

"Understood," Ginny said, making a point of not looking at her brother.

"Won't happen again Kingsley," Ron said before clearing his throat, "Permission to set up a pentagrammic perimeter with the cottage in the central pentagon to disorientate outside invaders while using magical methods to track Miss Foster."

Kingsley stared at Ron in astonishment. Ginny almost smiled but forced herself to keep her emotionless and almost military mask of detachment towards her partner as she explained.

"My partner had been playing chess just prior to the incident sir."

"Oh that explains it," Kingsley said with relief, "but who's Miss Foster?"

"Miss Tracy," Ginny smirked, "my partner is having some confusion over the witness's name."

Ron's eyes rolled toward Ginny and he glared at her but didn't Say a word.

"Right well, off you go and do that Auror Weasley," Kingsley said, visibly amused at how formal they were both being now, "and when you have a moment please write a report on how you do such a thing and submit it to me."

"Um, okay," Ron said with a wary look on his face and a nod of the head.

Kingsley smiled.

"That might just get you an automatic qualification and a department to re-structure. If that happens you would have to sit or pass any exams in order to become a full Auror."

"Oh," Ron said, clearly hopeful at hearing there was a way to by-pass the written theory exams.

"Well get out there and do your pentangle thing. Ginny, come with me and let's see to Miss Tracy shall we?"

* * *

_A/N Due to real life being nasty to me I've been slow on the update. Sorry about that but don't fret, I will update, I just can't give you any assurances when that will be._

_Happy Birthday to my Scrib for yesterday!_


	9. 8 Advantage, Weasley

**Advantage, Weasley**

Ron had never felt more like Hermione in his life.

He had written a report with proposals and guidelines and an implementation schedule. There were outlines of all the limitations of the proposal listed with bullet points and he'd used words like 'ergo' and 'thus'. He'd separated the segments by writing each proposal on a slightly different shade of parchment. He had to face up to it, he had colour-coded his project.

Kingsley looked at it as if it was a suspicious object for quite some time. Then he had flipped through it, eyebrows rising, and as the document fell open at a detailed graph and a diagram with moving arrows demonstrating the way his spell worked.

"Ron..." Kingsley said before looking down at the document again and shaking his head in amazement.

"It's only a rough draft," Ron shrugged, hoping to excuse any shoddy work Kingsley might have been despairing of.

"This...is..."

"I'll do it properly, sorry," Ron said as he tried to pull the document out of Shacklebolt's hands.

"...magnificent!"

Ron froze and his eyes were wide. Kingsley beamed at him before slapping him on the shoulder.

"I'll see this gets published as an official text book. You'll get paid of course."

"Text book? Published? Magnificent?" Ron blurted.

"Good work Weasley. You've done the department proud." Kingsley beamed and slapped Ron on the arm.

Ron staggered a little before composing himself.

"Right, well glad you...y'know? Glad you liked it sir." Ron nodded, nervously, "So what shall I do now?"

"Get back to your assignment of course," Kingsley said before turning and striding away down the corridor, calling over his shoulder as he went, "and stay vigilant!"

Ron nodded and set off; mind full of pride and astonishment at the complementary way Kingsley had received his work. It was almost dizzying how good he felt.

In fact he _was_ quite dizzy.

He stopped to lean against the wall to steady himself. Closing his eyes he realised he could smell a familiar combination of smells; hair, soap, spicy food and rich coco powder. He could smell Foster.

Ron's hand was already pulling out the Deluminator and holding it before his face when he realised that he couldn't be jumping into Foster's mind, she wasn't there.

Who was in the Auror department who knew what Foster smelled like?

At that moment Ron made the decision to let himself go and see into whoever's mind it was.

Sound was sucked away from him as if he'd fallen face first into the water and sank down to the bottom. The smell was real, in his face, and he felt the warmth of another body against his. He opened his eyes and saw Foster's hair in his face.

He was about to react to being so close to the woman when the image was bleached away with a blinding white light. The sun was brilliant and he squinted, turning away from the light, and saw...a garden party. He could hear loud conversations and laughter that sounded like geese on the move. There was an explosion and the geese were gone, replaced by very human screams.

That was when he felt it, swelling inside him, an all consuming hatred of Muggles and Ron felt sick. He wanted to leave this person's mind but he couldn't, he was only sucked in further. He saw smoke clearing and instead of the carnage from the attack on the garden party he saw the corridors of the Auror department.

He saw Ginny in her Auror robes. She was being introduced to Foster. Ron realised that he was seeing this from behind a grandfather clock and as Ginny looked down the corridor he felt himself hiding from her gaze.

"Foster?" he said as he felt the same expression of shock inside himself.

Then Ron clenched his teeth and tried to wrench himself out of the person's head.

"Ginny, he saw...he knew...he's _here!_"

Ron was yelling to himself as he clicked the Deluminator and the invading memory was sucked away.

He was shaking and sweating as he fell sideways against the wall. His breaths were heavy and it took some time before his blurred vision cleared and he was able to walk, unsteadily, to the nearest seat and drop into it. He held his pounding head in both hands and tried to compose himself. One of the trainees from the Auror programme noticed him and mouthed 'you all right?' with a look of concern crinkling their face.

Ron nodded and sat up straight. He smiled, wearily, at the young man and gave a 'don't worry' wave of his hand. His colleague smiled back before carrying on his way.

Ron rubbed at his forehead firmly in an attempt to massage away the pain and then began to take in what he'd experienced. He'd clearly been drawn into the mind of a Death Eater, one who had been a mass murderer and who was close enough to Foster to know her smell and what her hair felt like, and one who had seen Foster being handed over to Ginny's custody.

He jumped to his feet before he was ready and staggered for a moment until he regained his balance. Then he broke into a run, going the same way Kingsley had gone, to tell him that there was somebody dangerous and connected to Foster in the department right now...and they knew about Ginny.

* * *

Ginny was waiting for her Patronus to come back from its patrol of the secure perimeter around the cottage when she felt the protection spells being disturbed and then saw her brother Apparating into the front garden.

She was about to ask him why he'd risked their security when, one by one, a whole team of Aurors Apparated into the garden alongside him.

"Foster!" she called out, worried that something big was about to happen.

"What?" Foster called before leaning out of the living room and frowning at Ginny.

"Something's up, we might be under attack, get ready to hide."

Foster looked worried and moved towards the window to look out at the massing Aurors. Ginny sprang forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her backwards and behind her.

"Stay behind me until I know what's going on," she ordered her charge.

Ron was now running towards the cottage, shouting something over his shoulder as he went, and flung the front door open.

"Ginny, Foster," he yelled before freezing on the spot at the sight of his sister shielding Foster and aiming her wand at his chest.

"Prove it's you!" Ginny demanded.

"You named your Pygmy puff after me; it's an anagram of Ronald!" Ron held up his hands as he panted.

"And why did I do that?" Ginny asked, knowing already that the man before her was indeed her brother.

Ron lowered his arms and gave a half smile.

"Because my Puffskein was called Little Ginny and when Fred killed it I thought you were gonna die too and cried like a Mandrake."

"Awwwwwwww!" Foster said as she stepped out from behind Ginny.

"Don't 'awwwwww' him," Ginny said, rolling her eyes and tutting, "he could be a Death Eater in disguise." Ginny lowered her wand and smiled, "And once he knows he can win you over he'll play you like a fiddle."

Foster's eyebrows rose and she smirked at Ron, who shrugged and pinked in the ears.

"Well anyway," Ron said as he gestured over his shoulder, "we have to move. Our position might have been compromised."

"How come?" Ginny frowned.

"It looks like there's somebody in the department who's connected to Foster's case and he saw you taking over her protective custody."

"So how did the Aurors find out there was a breech in security so suddenly?" Ginny stepped closer to Ron and expected to hear only one answer.

She got it.

Ron tapped the side of his head with his index finger and hunched his shoulders.

"That's good enough for me," Ginny said with a nod, "so where are we going?"

"Kingsley's the only one who knows and he's making us a Portkey. We can't have owls coming and going, there's no Floo and Patronus messages are only for dire emergencies," Ron explained, "He said he'd go home and tell Mum and Dad why we can't communicate with them."

Ginny nodded.

"Do we stay hidden or do we keep up with the brother and sister cover story?"

"He said there's no food there so one of us'll have to go out shopping," Ron said, "but we have to make it look like it's just the two of us...Foster can't be seen at all." Ron looked at the dark sinned woman and winced, "Sorry."

Foster sighed in resignation and waved her hand.

"Are we secure Weasleys?" Kingsley's voice boomed as he entered the cottage.

"Yes sir, just briefing Auror Weasley," Ron nodded.

"The cottage is secure sir," Ginny said, lifting her chin in an attempt to make herself appear as tall as her brother, "I had just done a sweep before you all arrived."

"Good job," Kingsley said before meeting Foster's eyes, "Miss Tracy, are you all right?"

Foster nodded and then swallowed.

"Good," Shacklebolt said as he pulled a builder's helmet out from under his coat, hand protected by a handkerchief, and set it on the ground before them, "the Portkey is ready, if there is any problem...anything at all, send a Patronus message to me and me alone. Don't trust any orders from the department unless they are delivered via my Patronus. Are we clear?"

"Yes sir," Ron and Ginny said together.

Kingsley glanced at Ron and looked troubled before grabbing him by the shoulder and leaning in towards him to mutter something that turned Ginny's stomach.

"Once in a while, let yourself drift away so you know there's nobody nearby plotting anything, understand Ron?"

Ron nodded but his face was pale.

"But sir, his head..." Ginny began to protest.

"Drift, that's all I'm suggesting, don't get pulled in. Use the Deluminator," Kingsley's grip on Ron's shoulder tightened, "I mean it Ron, of all the minds you can get drawn into, you don't want to go into this one. Protect yourself and, even if you think you're about to see something important, the moment you feel any pain in your head you use that thing and get out. That's an order."

"I understand sir," Ron said with a nod.

Kingsley's eyes darted towards Ginny and she gave a discreet nod as well. She knew it would be down to her to make sure Ron didn't overexert himself. Foster moved between the two redheads and Ron gave her a smile as he took her hand.

"Not a fan of Portkeys eh?" He asked her.

Foster shook her head and moved closer into Ron's side.

"Still got a girlfriend," Ginny said out of the corner of her mouth for nobody but Foster to hear.

"Right, on the count of three I want you to grab hold of the Portkey OK?" Kingsley said as he stepped back.

The three of them crouched down and held their hands out ready to take hold of the builder's helmet.

"One..."

Ron's eyes met Ginny's and she grabbed his free hand tightly.

"...Two..."

Foster closed her eyes tightly.

"...Three!"

All three of them lunged for the Portkey and the cottage was yanked away from them while their stomachs lurched forward and an invisible magical force tugged them towards their new hideout.

* * *

"_It's the powerful _Confundus _charm, the blows to the head, and ultimately the brain that attacked him," the Healer said to Arthur, Molly, Bill and the twins while Madam Pomfrey stood at her side and wrung her hands._

"_What are you saying?" Fred asked with impatience._

"_Are you saying he's mental?" George said as he folded his arms across his chest, defensively._

"_Let the Healer finish!" Madam Pomfrey snapped at them with disapproval._

"_Boys," Arthur said as he gripped his wife's shoulders while she pulled out a tissue and dabbed at her eyes, "you don't want to be treated like children anymore so act like adults."_

"_Well I feel very confident to hand your son's care over to Poppy, she knows his history so well," the Healer smiled, "but I do feel that maybe only one of you should go in with Poppy to see Ronald. Maybe you sir, or you eldest son?"_

"_I'll go in," Fred stepped forward, not understanding that the Healer was specifically asking for a head of the family who could decide whether Molly and her impulsive younger sons should really see Ron in such a state._

"_Dad?" Bill asked his father, waiting to be told to take charge or take care of his mother._

"_I want to see my boy," Molly sniffed, "can't I go in with Arthur, Poppy?"_

"_Molly, you're upset and I think Arthur and William are better equipped than I am to prepare you. Let one of them go in first, yes?"_

_Molly nodded and Arthur handed her over to Bill before clearing his throat and giving Madam Pomfrey a grim smile._

"_Let's go and see him than shall we?"_

_The first thing that hit Arthur was how much the potions smelled like those used on Bilius when he was losing his mind. He forced that thought from his brain and followed Madam Pomfrey across the hospital wing of Hogwarts and couldn't meet Hermione's worried eyes._

"_Mr Weasley, why did they put Ron in the other room? What's happening? Is he all right?" the pale young woman called out, clutching her bandaged chest as she shifted on her bed._

"_Ronald has a treatment that is quite noisy and you need your rest Miss Granger, when the treatment is over he will be able to complete his recovery in the ward with you." Madam Pomfrey said in a clipped tone, "Now please, the Weasley's don't need to be badgered right now."_

"_I'm...Sorry." Hermione said, meekly._

"_I'm glad you're all right Hermione," Arthur smiled, still sure he looked miserable, "I'll tell him you are doing well and he can keep you company soon."_

_Hermione drew a shaky breath in and Arthur followed Madam Pomfrey through a side door. The nurse let the door close before opening the next one._

"_Privacy charms on both of them, we can't have people on the ward hear...well, we just can't have them hear this Arthur. Brace yourself."_

_Arthur felt his mouth go dry and his palms grown damp. The door was opened and the sound of Ron sobbing from deep within himself hit him full in the face._

"_Oh my...Ron."_

_Even when Ron was a baby, when he was tiny and plagued with night terrors about spiders tangling him in their webs and crawling all over him, even when his Nana had died, he had never heard his youngest son cry like that._

_Ron's arms were red raw from the tendrils of the brain that wound around him and his knees were drawn up to his chest._

"_Shut up," Ron choked through his tears, "Lea'me alone...Just go away!"_

_Arthur was about to hurry to his son's side when he glanced to Madam Pomfrey to check that it was safe to do so._

"_His arms are very painful, try not to touch them," she said before gesturing for him to go to Ron's bedside._

_Ron whimpered and curled up into an even tighter ball on his side._

"_I don't wanna see it. Stop it. No!" Ron yelled into the pillow._

_Arthur took long strides to his troubled son's bed and pulled a chair very close so he could carefully ruffle the scruffy hair and let him know that he was there._

"_Ron, it's Dad. Everything's all right, son."_

_Ron's fists clenched so hard even his freckles seemed to turn white._

"_Filthy piss-ridden little hole and it's getting bigger and bigger and you're all getting sucked into it and I'm too big," Ron garbled, "I can't fit. Don't leave me here Dad!"_

"_I won't leave you, you're still here with me and I'm not going anywhere. Here, hold my hand," Arthur tried to uncurl Ron's fingers but it was impossible._

"_Get off me! Get off, get the fuck off!" Ron growled, "Get it off me Harry, I don't like it."_

_Arthur looked up at Madam Pomfrey and the woman sighed._

"_The beast is the man, the beast is in the man and it's claws...it hurts!" Ron cried._

"_What should I do, Poppy?" Arthur asked in desperation._

"_There's nothing to do but let the treatment take effect and drive the thoughts out. That brain burned images, feelings, thoughts into his skin and when the burns are healed Ronald's head will be clear again."_

"_How long?"_

"_Maybe twelve more hours, less if we're lucky, he'll still need treating and his arms will scar but the confusion will be gone."_

"_He's not going to be mad? He'll be sane won't he?" __Arthur said, almost pleading with her to say yes._

"_He isn't insane Arthur," she said with a weary shake of the head, "but I'd say this, if he ever came into contact with a powerful manipulative mind he'd lose himself to suggestion much faster than anybody else."_

"_You mean a Legilimens?" Arthur said, voice sounding hollow._

"_I mean...a love potion would take hold far worse than intended, Veritaserum would cause him to gush every secret he had rather than simply divulge things under questioning," Pomfrey listed while Arthur rubbed his thumb back and forth across Ron's forehead._

"Arthur dear?" Molly's call made him jump and spill his cold cup o tea over the kitchen table.

"Oh bugger, sorry my love, I was just on my way up to bed when I got distracted," he said as he sopped up the spillage with a nearby tea towel.

Molly's hand stilled his and their eyes met.

"Thinking about the children aren't you?"

"Ron," Arthur said, before throwing the tea towel to one side with a deep sigh, "this is all down to the Department of Mysteries you know? It made him vulnerable. He shouldn't be an Auror."

"It's what he wants and you can't argue with the boy, I've tried too many times."

"No you can't," Arthur said sadly, "but anyone can just climb inside his head whenever they want to."

"They can try," Harry said, causing Molly to jump with fright and spin to reveal the young man clutching the empty glass in his hand, "but I've seen somebody try and Ron was far too strong for them."

Arthur smiled and Molly rubbed her hand up and down Harry's arm.

"Now, I'm just going to get myself a drink of water and head back to bed." Harry said as he stepped past Molly and filled his glass before pausing to look at Arthur over his shoulder, "Anyway, Ginny's with him, with the amount of stubbornness they rile up in each other you wouldn't be about to break through Ron's head with a sledgehammer."


	10. 9 Questions

**Questions**

"_Everybody hold hands," their mother fussed as they approached the High Street in Ottery St Catchpole, "Fred, George, not each other please, that's even more dangerous than letting you cross alone."_

"_Oi!" Fred said with squeaky indignance while George have a huff and a tut._

_Bill took Fred's hand and Charlie grabbed a sulking George. Percy held out his hand for Ron to take and Ron, in turn, grabbed Ginny's._

"_Careful crossing over now," their Mum said as she stepped into the road and ushered her brood across the road, "it's busy here today."_

_Ginny was being dragged at the end of her chain of three, looking everywhere but ahead of her and asking what everything was and what everybody was doing._

"_Who's that man?"_

"_He's a butcher Ginny," Percy answered._

"_What's he doing with that knife?"_

"_He's sharpening it."_

"_Why?" Ron frowned._

"_He needs sharp knives to cut the meat." Percy answered with patience that his older siblings still hadn't mastered._

"_Do as you're told you little git!" Charlie was snapping at a whinging George._

"_Mum, Fred's not moving his sodding feet!" Bill called as he dragged Fred across the road, Fred's feet sliding along the rough road and face wickedly delighted._

"_Why does he need sharp knives for the meat cutting? Knives are always sharp, Mummy says so." Ron said as Ginny walked into an old lady's shopping basket and was then pulled out of the way by her brothers and towards the kerb._

"_Knives always cut Ronnie dear," their Mum said, pausing to blow the hair out of her eyes, "but if you want nice thin slices of bacon and not jaggedy thick ones they have to be cut with a very sharp knife."_

_Ron blinked at his mother and took in her explanation._

"_But why?"_

"_What do they put kerbs here for?" Ginny asked as she tripped up and stumbled onto the pavement._

"_To separate the road and the pavement," Percy answered._

"_Who was it who decided where the kerb would be Percy?"_

"_Why does the road need to be separated from the pavement Mummy?" Ron piped up as his mother began rummaging inside her handbag and pulled out her purse._

"_Bill, Charlie, take a Knut each and take everybody to the Porgey's sweet shop. Buy all the little ones a sweetie each and get yourselves something too and sit with them on the bench outside while I get the groceries."_

"_Where are you going for the groceries Mummy?" Ginny asked as Percy tried to pull Ron, and in turn her, after him and down the street._

"_Liptons dear, be a good girl and stay with your brothers, keep holding han-"_

"_Why are you going to Liptons Mummy?" Ron interupted._

"_Because it's the only shop that sells enough milk for all of us," his Mum smiled down at him._

"_But why? Why can't the other places just get more milk?" Ron said, resisting Percy's pull at his arm._

"_I don't know Ronnie, they don't tell me why?"_

"_Why not?"_

_Percy was calling after Bill and Charlie, who stopped and rolled their eyes._

"_They won't move, they keep bothering Mum!" Percy whined._

_Bill handed Fred to Charlie and jogged back towards the stragglers._

"_Who is that man?" Ginny said as she pointed to a street sweeper, "Can he fly that broom? How come he can take a broom out in the open and the boys can't Mummy?"_

"_C'mere you little pain!" Bill said as he picked Ginny up and made her squeak and giggle, "Don't you want any sweeties?"_

"_I do!" Ginny sang out loud._

"_Let's follow them Ron," Percy said as he pulled Ron along behind him, "before all the good sweets are all gone."_

"_Why would the sweets be all gone?" Ron said as he tripped over his untied shoelaces and stumbled all the way along the pavement._

"_I think we'll get you a gob-stopper," Percy sighed._

"_Why?"_

* * *

"Who's that man over there?" Ginny said as she nodded across the village square to a man behind a newspaper wearing a hat which was pulled down low. 

"Why?" Ron frowned, craning his neck in a most obvious way.

Ginny huffed and smacked him on the arm with the back of her hand.

"He's clearly suspicious!"

"He's clearly reading a newspaper!" Ron threw back at her.

"Constant vigilance, Ron? Everyone's a suspect, sound familiar?" Ginny put her hands on her hips and sneered at him.

"He's an old Muggle man," Ron said before stepping backwards back inside the terrace house they had rented, "and if you go over there all bolshy and make a scene we're gonna be known as 'the new people who are looking for trouble' when we really want to be known as 'Who are they? I don't know?' All right?"

"Let me go over there and ask him where the post office is," Ginny said, "I'll get him to speak to me and suss him out."

"Gin..." Ron said with a weary sigh, "Legilimency?"

"Well I could have a go but," Ginny began before Ron pulled her inside the house and closed the door.

"I mean mine," Ron said, voice low, "I'm getting nothing and if he was really watching his emotions would have flared when he saw you. Whoever it is knows what you look like and that you're with Foster. That is a bloke reading a paper!"

"But he could be using Occlumency," Ginny said, still unconvinced.

"And I feel like I've told people that Occlumency doesn't stop me getting pulled in, more times than Hermione told me you can't Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts grounds," Ron huffed before stomping off towards the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

He was halfway there when he made a small 'hmm' sound and plunged his hand into his pocket to pull out the Deluminator and activate it as quickly as possible. As the ball of light sank inside him his shoulders relaxed and he carried on his way.

"Ha! I knew it!" Ginny declared as she drew her wand and turned to fling open the front door.

"Ginny no," Ron barked, "it's just fucking grief!"

"What?" Ginny exclaimed.

"Mourners Gin, there's a funeral nearby and a church over the road, a big outpouring like that..." Ron's head bowed and he became subdued. "Anyway I recognised it straight away. No harm to us and I really don't want to be taken into those people's heads right now."

Ginny shook her head.

"You're no expert on this Legilimency thing yet and I had a bad feeling about that man behind the newspaper from the moment I saw him." She turned and swung the door open, wand held tightly at her side, "sometimes, brother dear, a woman's intuition is just as reliable as your new t-"

Ginny froze at the sight of a funeral procession moving by the open door. Slowly moving black cars, their roofs decked with floral tributes, filled with sombre looking people. Her eyes darted over to the 'suspect'. He had risen to his feet and folded his newspaper under his arm before removing his hat and bowing his head.

He was an elderly gentleman wearing a tatty paper poppy in his lapel and Ginny knew he was as safe as houses. She bit her lip and lowered her own head as the cars passed by before gently closing the door once again.

"How could you be so sure?" She turned to face her brother, who thankfully wasn't looking smug about being right.

"Ginny, I know what grief feels like." Ron half smiled but his eyes were cheerless. "It's pretty unmistakeable."

Ginny took three steps towards him and hugged him tightly.

"Your head didn't hurt did it?"

"Nah, I caught it early," Ron said as he ruffled Ginny's hair and grinned at her, "I'm getting pretty good at felling it coming on."

Ginny slapped his hand away and smoothed down her hair once more. Ron carried on through to the kitchen to make the tea and Ginny made her way up the stairs to Foster's bedroom to see if she wanted a cuppa.

* * *

With no word coming through to them, all they could do was remain hiding. Ron and Ginny were taking it in turns to go out in public to keep from going stir crazy and re-stock their supplies and Foster swung between staring at Ron in silence and gossiping with Ginny like a pair of old gasbags. 

One night the three of them became so bored that talk ended up moving back to the investigation they were no longer part of.

"So who was the person in the department who had all that stuff in his head?" Ginny said as she rubbed her eyes, tiredly.

"Why does that matter?" Ron said with a one shouldered shrug, "Our focus is Foster's ex, not his spies. Kingsley's gonna deal with that stuff while were gone isn't he?"

"Of course it matters you nit." Ginny huffed and narrowed her eyes, a patronising expression on her face, "If it wasn't the hex happy ex then who?"

"Why wouldn't you think it was him anyway?" Ron sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.

"He could have attacked sooner, it's got to be a spy for the ex and not the ex himself. What does he want if not revenge? It's got to be information."

"Why did I feel that anger and betrayal when I saw Foster through his eyes then, eh?" Ron said, eyebrows rising and the corner of his mouth twisting upwards into a smirk, "if it wasn't somebody who'd been physically intimate with her then how did they know what she smelled like, what her hair felt like, why would a spy know that?"

"_You've_ never been physically intimate with her and _you _seem to know those things!" Ginny threw back.

Foster shifted, awkwardly.

"Don't shit stir Gin," Ron warned his sister, "you've never been _intimate_ with Neville and I bet you could pick his smell out of a line up."

"A line up of smells?" Ginny snorted.

"Why?" Ron said with frustration, "Why now, when I'm trying to make a real point? Just why?"

"What did you see or feel in there to make you think it was so much more intimate than just somebody who's been around Foster like we have been?"

Ron looked down at his hands and then found himself unable to look his sister or Foster in the eye when he lifted his head again.

"Well um, it was kind of like the head I was...the person who was...the memories..."

"Oh spit it out Ron!" Ginny snapped.

"Whoever it was had...beeninbedwithfosternaked!" Ron said before flushing in the face.

"Oh," Ginny said as she sat back in her seat and then looked to Foster, "so, have you been with anybody else recently?"

"No!" Foster declared, defensively, jumping out of her chair and looking from brother to sister in hurt humiliation, "And before the two of you start dissecting my technique or something I have to ask you something?"

"What?" Ginny blinked.

"Why would you think we were going t-"

"Shut up Ron! Go on Foster, what is it?"

"That's it, that's it exactly," Foster said as she waved her hand between them, "All you two do is talk in questions and it's driving me nuts! Why, why, why? Who, what where?"

"It's an investigation, Tracy." Ron said before cringing as Foster exploded with a scream of frustration.

"My name is Foster, Tracy is my last name..._last!_"

"Sorry!" Ron blurted, cowering.

"He's such a prat so-" Ginny began to say with a shake of the head.

"And you, I get that you want to rib him all the time, sibling stuff and all that, but not about me. Not about 'Foster's silly crush'. The two of you ignored me at this table and I only got brought into the bloody conversation so you could embarrass me!"

"No, it wasn't," Ginny sputtered.

"It wasn't like I was teasing you about the sex stuff. I just wanted to be straight with you Foster." Ron said as he got to his feet.

"If the person at the Auror building had memories of being betrayed by me and knew what it felt like to be in bed with me then it's him ok? He's not outside the house looking for me, staking me out, he's back there." Foster drew in a calming breath before turning on her heel and stomping towards the front door, "So I may as well go outside for some fresh air."

"No!" Ron and Ginny shouted in unison.

"Why?" Foster said, in a parody of the questions that had been bouncing off the walls of their secret hideout.

"Because...cause..." Ron's eyes closed and he fumbled deep in his pocket for the Deluminator.

"Ron?" Ginny said as she grabbed him and helped him stand upright.

Ron was lifting the Deluminator to the side of his face when he heard what sounded like a whisper inside his head, the back of his neck prickled and he felt breath and warmth and Foster shouted for him to stop it from what sounded like miles away.

He heard the voice whispering into his ear and clicked the Deluminator. The ball of blue light sank into his throbbing head and Foster's shouts were just feet away from him again.

"Get out and leave me alone, I don't have secrets from you, I told you everything!"

"Didn't mean to," Ron panted, "didn't see anything."

"Ron sit down," Ginny ordered as she pushed him backwards and lowered him down into a chair.

"I'm going for a walk," Foster said as she reached for the door handle.

Ginny flung out her wand arm and sent a spell at the door that closed it off with bricks.

"Sorry Foster but I can't let you be seen by anyone."

Foster scowled at her and then marched up the stairs like a moody teenager throwing a tantrum.

"I'm fine Gin, go after her and make sure she's all right." Ron nodded towards the stairs.

"One more question first," Ginny said as she lowered her face to his level, "what did you see?"

"Nothing," Ron shook his head, "heard a whisper, man's voice, really low and close-to whisper."

"What was he whispering?"

"That's another question," Ron smiled, wearily.

"Ron." Ginny warned.

"When I know to free hate to sever no one."

"Free hate?" Ginny furrowed her brow, "What the hell does that mean?"

"No idea. Why would he have said that to her and why would she remember it but not mention it in her statement?"

"She's right," Ginny sighed, "We do talk in questions a lot. How long do you think we've been doing that for?"

"Since we got here, maybe?" Ron shrugged.

"Where, here?" Ginny smirked.

"Why do you do that?" Ron laughed.

* * *

"_Know anything about Muggles, Foster?"_

"_Um...well they have really complicated machines to do things for them. They do everything the hard way. Their photos don't move. Their sports are really two-dimentional..."_

"_And because of them we have to hide, as if we're something to be ashamed of, I never understood why that was fair."_

"_Well magic would scare them; we don't want to frighten people do we?"_

"_They have things called bombs, Foster. They can destroy the whole world, including ours, and that scares me. Why do I have to live with their power but they don't have to live with mine?"_

"_That's like saying a child pulling the legs off a spider is the same as an adult torturing another human being."_

"_I know some spiteful children, my love."_

"_And how many Muggles do you know?"_

"_I know all I need to know about Muggles, the one thing that will help me control them all, and I'm just biding my time until I use it."_

"_What are you talking about?"_

_His face nuzzled into the side of Foster's and he whispered with a hit of a growl, breath hot against her ear._

"_Oh, when I know to free hate to sever no one."_

Ron gasped and sat bolt upright, panting heavily and clutching his head. He heard a door opening further down the landing and suddenly light was seeping in under the crack of his bedroom door.

"Foster, what is it, what's the matter? Bad dream?"

"R-Ron!" Foster said, sounding shaken.

Ginny's footsteps sounded on the landing and soon his door was flung open and he squinted at the bright light from Ginny's wand.

"Shit, are you all right? Where's the Deluminator?"

Ron was massaging his temple with one hand and fumbling on the bedside table with the other.

"Put it...here," he said, wincing.

Ginny directed her wand downwards and saw that Ron had knocked everything off and onto the floor. Aiming the light at the carpet, she saw the Deluminator and hurried forward to pick it up. She wiped it off on her nightgown; a glass of water had fallen from the bedside table as well and had soaked everything, and then forced it into Ron's flailing hand.

"Here, click it," she said as she positioned Ron's thumb and then let go.

Ron clicked the Deluminator and the light was sucked from her wand and into it. The room was plunged into darkness.

"Shit!" Ron hissed.

There was another click and the light returned to Ginny's wand tip. Ron paused and scrunched his eyes up as the throbbing in his head seemed to worsen. He shook the Deluminator rapidly and clicked it again. Once more the light was gone.

"Fuck, it won't do it!" Ron whimpered.

"Click it again," Ginny said, and as soon as the light was back she took the Deluminator and tapped it with her wand, "_Siccus!_"

There was a sucking sound and Ginny handed the Deluminator back again.

"No damp inside now, give it another go," Ginny said with concern for her brother's distress.

Ron took a deep breath and clicked the Deluminator once again. The ball of blue light grew from the device, like a giant bubble, and then sank into his head. Ron closed his eyes and exhaled with a low moan of relief.

Ginny sighed and pushed Ron down onto the bed, pulling the covers back over him, and set the Deluminator back on the bedside table.

"Get some sleep, I'll go back and make sure Foster's ok."

"Tell her I'm sorry," Ron mumbled, eyelids heavy, "and ask her what it means."

"What _what_ means?"

Ron closed his eyes and rolled onto his side, visibly exhausted, and muttered into his pillow.

"To free hate to sever no one."

* * *

_A/N Life has calmed down somewhat so I should be back a bit more frequently with this until its done now._

_I have just updated my profile with some news, if you love Roncentric stuff then head over there and if you're interested in my real life writing there's news on that too. Both are non-profit for me but supporting good causes so I don't feel self conscious about pimping them to you lot who are the nicest people to ever grace this site._

_Loves you all_


	11. 10 Riddle

**Riddle**

After a night of questioning from Ginny over the meaningless words her ex had whispered into hear ear in bed one night, Foster was tired and restless.

She had taken it upon herself to clean the place up, it clearly hadn't been lived in for years, and make some comfort food for lunch. It also took her mind off the fact that Ron had stopped meeting her eye and was avoiding using her name at all for fear of being snapped at for getting it wrong. She didn't want to be hard on him, it wasn't his fault she had a crush on him any more than it was either of their faults that Ginny just loved to make them both aware of it as often as possible.

Ginny was taking a nap in the living room and Ron had gone out, saying he fancied a cup of tea out of something that wasn't a chipped mug, so Foster was left feeling in the way but unable to go anywhere.

She occupied herself making a vegetable stew with pumpkin leaves, onions, tomatoes and various types of pepper and while the stew simmered she began work on her smoked chicken fillets.

The kitchen was a pungent mishmash of aromas and soon Foster had to open a window so she could see what she was doing. She ground together some spices from a potion set she had found in one of the cupboards and sprinkled them into the stew, setting a wooden spoon stirring the concoction by itself, and then wondered what she should make for Ron's sweet tooth.

As soon as she had the thought she scolded herself. 

She had to stop indirectly flirting with her guardian and protector. Not only was he professionally not allowed but he was in a relationship and it appeared to be with one of his little sister's best friends and Ginny didn't strike Foster as a woman who wouldn't _strike_ Foster if she came between the two of them. 

But still, she wanted to do something nice for Ron, he had been given such a painful headache in the middle of the night thanks to her. She vowed to herself to take a dreamless sleep potion that night to spare him another of her over emotional nightmares. 

She found herself smiling as she heated some sugar in a skillet, waiting for it to brown, and began to grate some coconut. Ginny had wandered all over the village looking for a coconut before getting the bus all the way to the nearest fairground and winning one for her from the coconut shy.

This had greatly impressed Ron and utterly embarrassed Foster, who had told Ginny that peanuts would do just as well, but now that she had the fresh coconut she was glad of the young Auror's efforts.

Foster removed the skillet from the heat and added some cardamom to the coconut before adding the mixture to the sugar and stirring it all together for a minute. The new smell battled with the existing ones for dominance and Foster felt at home for the first time since she'd gone into hiding.

The kitchen smelled like the kitchens of her childhood. 

"Merlin's tadger, it smells like a potion master in here!" Ginny said as she waved her hands to clear the air and walk into the kitchen.

"I'm making dinner," Foster said as she poured the mixture out of the skillet and spread it over a metal tray, "and this is Kashata for afterwards."

"Whatta?" Ginny said as she scrunched up her nose and peered down at the gloopy layer of coconut and melted sugar being spread evenly before her.

"It sets and you slice it into diamonds, then eat them like biscuits," Foster said with a smile, "my mother used to make them for me when I was a little girl."

"Oh right, nice," Ginny said, eyebrows raising now that she understood that the paste was to become a pleasant experience to eat.

"There's a stew bubbling away on the stove and I'm smoking some chicken too."

"You're smoking the whole house, to be fair," Ginny said with a shrug as she waved her wand and sent the cloud that was fogging the kitchen out through the window.

"You don't understand the concept of smoking something do you Ginny?" Foster said as she folded her arms.

"What?" Ginny blinked before her eyes widened and she clamped her hand over her mouth, "Oh sorry!"

Foster laughed and set about fixing the problem of the smokeless chicken.

"So where's my dear brother then?" Ginny asked as she pulled up a chair and sat down.

"Went out for a cup of tea, he doesn't like the stuff we've been brewing here," Foster shrugged.

"Yeah, we are spoilt for good tea at home, we can't really tolerate a bad cuppa."

"How do you make tea badly?" Foster blinked, "It's just a teabag and hot water, splash of milk, and two and a half sugars if you're Ron."

"Mum doesn't make tea with a bag," Ginny explained.

"Oh right," Foster said before shrugging, "tea was never really my drink."

"Well tea isn't a drink, if we want a drink we'll have a pumpkin juice, gillywater, Butterbeer or what-have-you but tea is just a requirement...like air." Ginny explained.

"You must be homesick, the two of you?"

"You can talk." Ginny snorted. "Look at you in here, trying to cook your way into feeling at home."

Foster gave a one shouldered shrug.

"Well all I have to miss is...well, he's never coming back and I wouldn't want him if he did." Foster smiled at Ginny's painfully sympathetic expression, "I can't feel homesick when I have no home anymore but I feel like I'm living with a real family, what with you and your brother on at each other all the time. Sometimes the two of you even involve me rather than drag me into things."

"Look, I'm really sorry to have used your feelings to tease Ron," Ginny said, shame burning a blush in her cheeks, "See, me and Ron have a bit of a history of hitting below the belt when we fight and I admit I hit you when I was trying to hit him and I should know better, especially considering my job."

"I'm not angry with you," Foster sighed, smiling and sitting down opposite Ginny, "and I can cope with your brother not fancying me, but I don't want to just be the 'thing' you're both hiding."

"I know it's rough, not being able to go out, but..."

"If I'm stuck here then let me have some control over this place. Give me a purpose or a project or something."

"Like chef?" Ginny cocked an eyebrow as she spoke, glancing to the bubbling pot of stew on the stove.

"Like Foster, not the assignment or your mission, let me be a housemate rather than a prisoner who happens to live in a house."

"Well, I wouldn't want to put you to work, Foster, you're not making me the ugly sister to your Cinderella."

Foster laughed at this and Ginny folded her arms and huffed.

"It's not that funny!"

"Oh yes it is!" Foster yelled as if she was at a pantomime.

Ginny gave a tut and rolled her eyes before chuckling too.

* * *

Ron sat in the Marigold tearoom, Muggle newspaper open and clicky top pen in his hand, and scribbled some words over a photograph of a smug looking man called Gordon.

_When I know to free hate to sever no one._

He stared at the words for a moment before rubbing his head and trying to think back to what he saw when Foster's dream pulled him into her head.

"_Oh, when I know to free hate to sever no one."_

Ron chewed on the inside of his lip and began trying to re-arrange the letters to make some sense of them. A feeling of worry and embarrassment swelled inside his head from nowhere and his vision blurred. He grabbed the Deluminator, lifted it to his mouth and clicked it. The ball of crackling blue light sank into his head and cleared it once again. 

Glancing around, he noticed a couple of people looking at him. He hoped the charm that was added to the Deluminator's disguise had done the trick and the ball of light was also seen as something else by the watching Muggles. One of the women at a table across the room smiled and nodded at him and he smiled back. He'd been warned that Muggles might ask him if he was feeling alright on seeing him using the Deluminator in its disguise as an asthma inhaler, and to just smile and nod if he could get away with not having to say anything. After all, he didn't want to get caught out by a Muggle asking questions about a treatment he wasn't actually receiving.

The waitress brought his cup of tea and plate of chocolate digestives and set them down on the little round table.

"Everything ok, sir?" she asked, tilting her head to one side.

"Thanks, I'm fine" Ron smiled and nodded, before focusing on the words again.

_At noon we set fire to ... woven reek no he_

Ron huffed and tried another reshuffle.

_He won't see for no vow near tin toe...eek._

Ron stabbed the nib of his pen hard into the paper and scribbled over his terrible attempts. He hated anagrams. Hermione was brilliant at them, Ron thought to himself, he bet she would be able to solve it just by looking at the letters.

Ron took a sip of his sweet tea and doodled a pair of glasses on Gordon's picture. Kingsley was full of praise for his ability to think around problems but that wasn't a real talent, it was a necessity. He had to think around problems because he didn't have the brain power to actually solve anything.

If he was honest with himself he was always waiting for the penny to drop and everybody to realise that Ron's methods took a problem any intelligent person could solve in thirty seconds and work around it in thirty minutes. He wasn't a genius at all, he was just proficient at verbal sleight of hand and canny misdirection so that nobody was ever focusing on the fact he wasn't able to do the simple task required.

It was like Hermione had said in their first year, most wizards can't get their heads around logic problems.

He'd put how much he missed Hermione to the back of his mind all this time but now that he needed her mind, her logic, he realised that he needed her in many more ways too. Ginny would bicker with him and worry about him but it wasn't the same as bickering with Hermione and nothing at all like having Hermione fretting over him. When Ginny pushed away his fringe and felt his forehead he just wanted to bat her hand away but when Hermione did it he wanted to lean in and bury his face in the side of her neck.

He sighed deeply and realised that he'd given the picture of Gordon wild, bushy hair. He snapped himself out of his mental diversion and sat upright, turning the page and flattening out the newspaper onto the puzzle page. He rolled his eyes at the mockery fate was making of him and began to write out the words again.

_When I know to free hate to sever no one._

_Fine ore on the war woe seek none._

Ron gave a tut and drew a line through the gibberish before frowning as he remembered exactly what he'd heard.

"_Oh, when I know to free hate to sever no one."_

"Two more letters, maybe?" he muttered to himself.

_How a keener thief won. Seer onto hot oven._

Ron didn't like the sound of that and scribbled it out immediately.

_One nor seven, oh how eerie a theft to know._

This got Ron thinking, he'd come up with thief and theft, could that be the key to the riddle?

_Evoke no one who owe northeastern thief._

Ron shook his head and tried again.

_Threaten nor evoke no thief who one owes._

He was accomplishing nothing, other than making himself feel even more stupid than he already did, and threw down the pen with a growl of frustration.

"Crossword giving you trouble?"

"Huh?" Ron blinked, looking up from the paper.

"Cryptic eh?"

Ron looked dumfounded and gaped at the Muggle man.

"Sorry, are you one of those people who doesn't like strangers making conversation while you're trying to concentrate?"

"No, it's just...cryptic, yeah," Ron nodded, still looking a little startled, "you're a mind-reader – and I'm not usually the one who gets to say that these days!"

The man laughed.

"What's the clue?"

"Um," Ron looked down and wondered if he should really be sharing such important information with a Muggle, "it's not really a clue, it's just..."

"Cryptic crosswords are like that." The man nodded, "What have you got?"

"Oh when I know to free hate to sever no one."

"Is that written as words or numbers?" the man asked, thoughtfully.

"Huh?" Ron said; bewildered as to how you could write words as numbers.

"Is it written numerically or are the numbers spelled out?"

"Numbers?" Ron said again before reading the words he had written down before him, "I have no ide...Numbers."

"Say it again, I might have misunderstood the clue," the Muggle man said, getting just as obsessed with the puzzle as Ron had been.

"Oh when I know to free hate to sever no one," Ron said out loud.

"How many words are you looking for? If it's two it could be phone number, telephone number, mobile number...how many spaces have you got?"

"Oh one nine oh two three eight two seven oh one," Ron said to himself, eyes wide and mouth agape, "he wasn't saying a riddle he was telling her a number."

Ron rose from his seat and knocked the table with his long legs, spilling the tea a little.

"You've lost me," the man at the other table said with a frown.

"It's a number!" Ron exclaimed, the volume of his revelation was far too high and the man nearly fell off his seat as he leaned away from Ron's waving arms, "Oh thank you," Ron grabbed the Muggle man by the shoulders and pulled him into a hug.

The Muggle man was stiff as a board in shock but Ron didn't notice this. He grabbed his saucer of chocolate digestives and handed it to the man.

"Have a biscuit!" Ron beamed before tearing off the piece of newspaper and stuffing it into his pocket. 

The man, very nervously, took a chocolate biscuit from the small pile and thanked Ron. Ron was already rummaging in his pocket for some money and threw it down onto the table before grabbing the cup of tea, gulping it down in one, and then gathering up the pile of chocolate digestives.

"Thanks again," Ron nodded, "couldn't have done it without you, it was almost like having my girlfriend here to help."

The man shifted awkwardly in his seat and Ron bounded for the door with his handful of biscuits. As he passed the waitress he beamed at her.

"The money's on the table, the tea was brilliant, I _love_ this place. Bye!"

And with that Ron bounded out of the tea shop and across the road towards the safe house.

* * *

_Dear Ron,_

_Kingsley said he would pass on this letter to you when he saw you and Ginny for your next briefing. It was nice of him to offer, I hated not being able to contact you, but now I can get a message to you I'm actually pretty stumped for anything to say._

_I don't want to fuss about your Legilimency problem, I know you'd hate that, and I can't ask about what you've been doing to pass the time or if the weather's good or bad because it'd be like asking you to compromise your position._

_So, I'm sort of stuck for what to say._

_Harry got into a punch-up with a Death Eater informant yesterday. He totally forgot he was a wizard and was swinging his fists all over the place. He broke the informant's nose and his own hand. Kingsley wasn't very impressed and Harry's very embarrassed about it all. The other Aurors keep sniggering about the greatest wizard of his generation not knowing how to duel with his wand._

_He's tense and missing Ginny and he's really rubbing me up the wrong way with his snappish nature. He grunted something at me to add to my letter to you, I couldn't make it out but I suppose it was something like he misses you and to be careful._

_It's funny how it's easy to guess how Harry's feeling and write that down to you, while not being able to tell you for myself. _

_You and me, we're always so...we don't really communicate in the normal way, do we? Yet I can look into your eyes and understand more from them than an hour of us doing our thing of talking around what we really want to say. You can read my posture much easier than you can read my letters, I'm sure._

_I've already written this letter five times, you see?_

_The other copies are scrunched up and thrown into the fire because I was embarrassed at how pathetic I sounded or because I knew they would make you squirm to read them. _

_We really do need to be able to talk about our feelings without getting uncomfortable you know?_

_But I don't suppose a serious discussion about our relationship should really be undertaken while we're apart like this._

_I can sense you drifting off now Ron, wake up!_

_So, there are things I want to say but I shouldn't say __them __in a letter if I've never said them to your face and I can't write others down without feeling like one of those girlfriends I never wanted to be. This leaves me with one option. I'm going to tell you everything I need to but do it as if it's coming from somebody else._

_So here goes._

_Your mother sends her love and wants to make sure you're eating well and not just snacking all day long. You need proper meals to keep up your energy, especially if you've been having any headaches for any reason._

_Your Dad is worried about you trying to control your ability rather than just preventing it with the Deluminator. You're still getting used to your condition and it puts your head under so much stress, he feels sick about what could go wrong._

_George misses somebody to laugh with. You seem to have taken levity with you when you went away, with Fred gone your smile and buoyancy are needed more than ever and...it feels like he's sinking without you around. A person can only stay afloat for so long without something to cling to after all._

_And dear little Pig, he worships you, all he wants is your approval and all he wants to do is fly to where you are and bother you while you're trying to concentrate. He wants to settle down for the night on his perch in your bedroom. He wants to zoom around until you get annoyed and pluck him out of the air and call him a name. Even your grumpy moods are something to miss._

_Everybody loves you, please take care, and don't do anything too 'Ron' and scare us all. It's bad enough when you do those things when you're around us so I can't imagine how it would feel for you do something foolishly brave while you're so far away._

_Give my love to Ginny; you have to be the one to pass it around...because it's always been all yours._

_I can't wait to see you again,_

_Hermione_

* * *

_A/N Credit to an episode of Johnathan Creek for the telephone number thing (I'm not that clever!)_

_Also thanks to my friends The Steppy One and Lnalvgd for the read through._

_It was brought to my attention that a coconut shy is a very British thing so needs an explanation. At UK fairgrounds we have a stall where you pay for 3 balls and throw them at coconuts on metal stands. If you knock one of the cocnuts off you get to keep it as your prize. This is how Ginny was able to get Foster a coconut!_


	12. 11 Numbers

**Numbers**

"Hello?"

"Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, may I help you?"

"Deputy Prime Minister? Um...please?"

"You'll have to leave a message, it's Prime Minister's question time at the commons right now."

"Oh-kay."

"Who can I say was calling?"

"Just tell him it was me," Ron said before hanging up the telephone quickly and running out of the phone box and across the square to the safe house.

* * *

"This takes me back," Kingsley smiled as he walked into the kitchen, "this is what being five years old smelled like."

Foster turned away, bashfully, and Ginny gave her boss a significant look that told him to behave himself and stop flirting with the witness.

"Auror Weasley, a briefing in the living room if you could?" Kingsley said, trying to look dignified.

Ginny was following him down the hall when Ron burst inside, breathless and excited.

"Kingsley, you're here, great! I needed to get in touch with you and here you are." Ron said, voice far too loud.

"Ron, are you drunk?" Ginny frowned.

"No," Ron scowled and tutted at his sister before smiling back at Kingsley again, "you used to work with the Muggle Prime Minister didn't you?"

"Yes, yes I did," Kingsley nodded with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Oh when I know to free hate to sever no one!" Ron declared, triumphantly.

"Excuse me?"

"Did you never use the fellytones when you were under cover?"

"No, I was acting as a bodyguard in real life, I didn't actually do the secretary job."

Ron deflated a little.

"Oh but..." Ron drew in a sharp breath and closed his eyes, he plunged his hand into his pocket and pulled out the Deluminator to click it and send the ball of light into his head.

"Got it?" Kingsley asked, a hand resting upon his shoulder and concern in his eyes.

"S'fine," Ron nodded as his eyes opened once again, "I have something from Foster's memories of her ex, it's a phone number, and I rang it and..."

"You rang it without preparing yourself. What do you know about Muggle phone etiquette?" Ginny said, with a huff.

"I've used a phone before!" Ron said, defensively.

"And you shouted at the person on the other end until they told you never to call again and hung up on you," Ginny snapped.

"Like you could have done better," Ron said, eyes narrowed into a scowl at his sister.

"This stops now!" Kingsley said, both hands raised, "I will not referee between Weasleys, I had enough when Fred and George were in the Order with their mother."

Ron and Ginny both folded their arms across their chests and glared at opposite walls.

"Well I did phone and somebody did answer and they said they were the office of the Deputy Prime Minister and that he was at Prime Minister's Question Time, and not once did they say I was shouting at them and I didn't get hung up on." Ron mumbled, in full on sulk mode.

"Our man had the telephone number of the Deputy Prime Minister?" Kingsley frowned.

Ron nodded and Ginny's posture loosened and she looked at Kingsley, thoughtfully.

"Could he be being controlled by Imperius over the phone?" She asked, hoping this would be dismissed as impossible.

"I wouldn't have thought so but, then again, I've never tried manipulating the mind via Muggle phone lines before. It's uncharted territory."

"How could we find out?" Ginny frowned.

"_I_ could find out," Ron said, reeling away from the two of them as if he expected to be berated for suggesting it.

"Who would you ring?" Ginny asked, calmly.

"Well I have a number for Hermione's parents, I could try that. They know me, what's been going on with me, and maybe even Hermione would be home and I could try it on her."

"Well I can't make a show of myself with you at the phone box, I stand out a bit," Kingsley said with a laugh, "so if I stayed with Foster, maybe you could go with him, Ginny? I'd want somebody with him in case something went wrong."

"I'll go," Ginny nodded.

The brother and sister finally made eye contact again and released the tension between them.

"Shall we go then?" Ron suggested with a one shouldered shrug.

* * *

Ron pressed his back flat against the side of the phone box to let Ginny step inside and close the door behind her. He picked up the receiver and fumbled in his pocket for his Muggle coins.

"Shit," Ron hissed as he realised he'd left all his change, except the coin he'd used for the call to the Deputy Prime Minister's office, at the tea room.

"Don't tell me," Ginny rolled her eyes and pulled her purse out of her bag and opened it, "which one do you need?"

"A little silver one with corners," Ron said as he leaned over the open purse to prod around with his long index finger.

"I just saw one like that and you covered it up," Ginny said as she smacked his hand away, "Will you just let me do it?"

Ron huffed and held the phone to his ear just as a high pitched beep started sounding, making him jump and flail his arms, knocking the contents of the purse all over the floor.

"Oh you idiot!" Ginny said angrily.

They both tried to bend over in the tight space to pick the fallen coins up and clunked their heads together.

"Ow!" Ron shouted.

"Ouch, my elbow!" Ginny yelped as she jerked away from Ron and banged her arm against the door.

The coins were rolling outside the phone box and Ron spotted the one he'd needed behind the heel of his shoe. He tried to slither downwards to pick it up but Ginny was already pulling on the door to pick the coins up from outside. She opened the door a crack before squashing Ron behind it and ramming it closed again.

"Oh I'm so glad Kingsley didn't come to keep an eye on you," Ginny grumbled, "because we're causing _much_ less of a scene without him!"

Passers by were laughing and pointing, little Muggle children were stooping to pick up coins that had rolled all the way into the path, and Ron's legs were folded into his chest so he was unable to stand up again.

"Ginny, just help me up and stand outside the bloody phone box while I do this," Ron shouted.

With lots of huffing and grunting Ron was eventually standing again and had the coin in his hand. He hung up the phone and then picked it up again to hear the dialling tone.

"You do remember the number, right?" Ginny said from the open door.

Ron ignored her, dropped the coin into the slot and then dialled.

"Look Mummy, pennies!" a little boy was declaring as he bent over to pick up a thick gold coin.

"Yes, the lady spilt her money, go and give it back to her," the mother said.

The phone was ringing. Ginny smiled and thanked the little boy. Ron drummed his fingers on the side of the phone box and noticed that most of the Muggles were pocketing the money they picked up off the ground.

He looked away and saw Ginny watching him, impatiently, and just as he was about to tell her he didn't think there was anybody in the ringing stopped and a click made him jump.

"Hello?"

"Hello? Is Hermione there please?"

"It's me...Ron?"

"Hi," Ron said, with more relief than he meant to, "I'm so glad you're there, I didn't want to have to ask your parents to help me."

"Why, what is it?" Hermione's voice became anxious.

"I need to find out if mind magic travels over phonelines or not. If it does we might have found out something very sinister."

"So you need to...?"

"I need to try to...pop in for a visit," Ron said, wincing at how he couldn't make this sound ok in any way.

"Pop in? You want to Apparate over to the house?"

"No," Ron said with a sigh of apprehension, "I need to pop into your head for a moment. Can you think me in for a bit?"

"Think you in? Ron it's never been my conscious invitation..."

"I know, I know, but I need you to think of something emotional so I can get drawn in. Have you felt emotional about anything today?"

"Because women are emotional on a day to day basis I suppose?" Hermione huffed.

Ron groaned and put his hand to his head.

"I can't be sensitive, charming Ron _and_ invading your brain Ron at the same time Hermione. Give me a break!"

"Sensitive, charming Ron eh?" Hermione said, she sounded as if she was smirking.

"Oi you, don't mock me," Ron grinned before lowering his voice, "I read your letter."

Hermione was quiet for a moment on the other end of the line.

"Oh good."

"You were right about us not being able to say how we feel, we're all messed up after years of butting heads, but that stuff you said..."

"It's ok, Ron."

Ron drew patterns in the glass window of the phone box with his finger, idly.

"I miss you." Ron sighed.

"Oh I miss you too, believe me."

"Me and Ginny are gonna kill each other."

Hermione chuckled.

"I'm glad she's there to keep an eye on you though."

"Not been doing her job then," Ron smirked as he glanced over his shoulder at his eavesdropping sister, "'cause all she seems to do when I look at her is roll them."

Ginny gave a tut and shook her head. Hermione laughed softly. Ron changed the hand he cradled the phone in and looked in the opposite direction.

"I really do need to try to break inside Hermione, can't you get upset or something? I'm usually good at getting you upset."

"Don't say that," Hermione said, sounding unhappy that Ron was putting himself down again.

Ron seized on his greatest strength, self deprecation.

"I just stumble through my life upsetting everybody, everywhere I go, and the one time I actually need to cause some offence I can't. I'm so useless I can't even be a git when I need to be."

"Ron Weasley, I won't listen to this nonsense just so you can test whatever theory you've come up with, do you understand me?"

"I never understand you," Ron said, digging deeper into his old schoolboy self-loathing, "we're about as suited as a couple as Kreacher and McGonagall."

"Enough!" Hermione said, sternly, "a key would look like an odd match for a lock but they fit together perfectly and that's us. My whole life has moulded me into a perfect fit for you and I won't have you saying oth-"

Ron breaths shortened, his head throbbed and he fell into the wall of the phone box, and Ginny's voice cried out that she had got him and to be careful.

The sun was hazy and the breeze delicate. There was a sweet smell of honeysuckle in the air and Hermione was sitting in a garden with a huge book in her lap. Birds twittered and Mrs Granger approached and set a glass of cloudy looking orange drink beside her on the grass.

"This is your idea of enjoying the outdoors?" Mrs Granger smiled fondly and stroked her daughter's hair.

"I have to memorise everything I missed. I always end up missing the end of term and that's when the important tests happen."

"So what text book are you reading?"

Hermione blushed.

"It's a...book about Healing."

"You do classes in Healing?" Her mother said with surprise.

Hermione bit her lip and shook her head.

"I was looking up something about brain injuries."

Her mother frowned and Hermione closed the book with a huff.

"But they're all about the injured person's brain and not injuries from other brains!"

Her mother looked as if she'd just been spun around on the spot very fast and then given a slap with a live eel.

"I don't quite understand."

"Neither do I," Hermione mumbled before Ron shivered within the memory and felt two arms wrapping around his waist from behind.

"Her-Hermione?" He said as he looked over his shoulder to see his girlfriend holding him closely.

"I never did find a way to stop other people's brains from hurting you."

Ron turned around in her arms and smiled down at her, lowering his head to kiss her on the lips.

"I'm so glad you were home," he said as he rested his head on her shoulder and inhaled the scent of her hair, "I can't imagine having to do this with your Dad."

Hermione laughed and jabbed him in the ribs. Ron pulled back, looking pleased with himself. Hermione lifted her hand a stroked his face, tenderly.

"So it this good news or bad news that you can be pulled into my mind over the phone?"

"Very, very bad," Ron whispered, looking downwards and shaking his head, "if I can do this then other people can put very powerful Muggles under the Imperius curse and get them to do who knows what."

"Oh my," Hermione said, looking worried, "that is more than bad news."

Ron looked back into her eyes and rubbed his thumb against her cheek.

"I have to go, I'm in a public phone box and probably causing even more of a scene than I was."

"Kiss me goodbye," Hermione said desperately, rising up on tiptoes and pulling Ron towards her by the back of his neck.

Ron tilted his head and the two of them crushed their lips together and hummed with contentment.

_Hello?_

Ron jerked away and looked around himself.

"Ron, what's the matter?" Hermione asked, still holding onto him, lovingly.

"Did you hear that?" Ron asked, looking off into the distance.

"I didn't hear anything." She said as she focused hard and tried to hear what Ron had heard.

_Yeah, I need a cab for eight o'clock tonight._

"What?" Ron spun around and looked at the blank white space behind him.

The garden was gone, the breeze and the sun had vanished, and Hermione was clinging to his arm looking worried.

"Ron, you're acting really strangely, I can't hear anything."

"You didn't hear that?" Ron asked her, panic rising within him.

_...never speaking to you again!_

Ron scrunched up his eyes and shook his head to try to clear it but several more overlapping voices came crashing in to the white space.

_I'd like to place an order please._

_...accident on the main road outside the station. Come quickly!_

_I'll meet you there, I'm running really late._

_I'm so sorry, he was a lovely man._

"Stop it!" Ron yelled before smelling burning and hearing screams.

_999 emergency, what service do you require?_

His feet were wet, water ran across the ground and he turned to see where it was coming from.

_It's all over the place. I can't turn the thingy it's all rusted!_

Ron felt lonely and angry and wronged and as Hermione tried to hold him and speak to him he shoved her away.

"I saw you with him you fucking bitch!" He spat at her stunned face.

"Wh-what?" She stammered, looking hurt.

Ron had clamped his hand over his mouth and swallowed in horror at what he'd just done.

"That wasn't me. I didn't say that. There's people coming in," he was panicking very badly now, "There's loads and loads of people all forcing their way in. Why can't you hear them?"

Ron was gripping the sides of his head and pulling at his hair as he dropped to his knees.

"Ginny should be using the Deluminator," Hermione said as she rubbed his back in an attempt to soothe him, "Why isn't Ginny using the Deluminator?"

Ron screwed his eyes tightly shut and then opened them again and saw people sitting on a sofa, on a beach, there were carpets on the sand and the sea was waving backwards and forwards like curtains in the wind.

He shook his head hard and blinked his eyes back into focus again. A woman in Wellingtons and a wedding dress was running through an office. There was a party in the office and people had their trousers down and a light was flashing against the thing they were sitting on. The bride ran on and the wall of the office fell down and turned into a thick layer of snow.

Squealing children were building a snowman, uncovering the snow covered ground to make the head, and then there were frightened screams and cries as a real human head was found beneath the snow.

_I'll be able to pay half of it by next week. Can you just wait for a little longer?_

Ron turned around and felt the heat from an intense fire hit him full in the face. He crawled backwards and Hermione was trying to help him up but the ground was crumbling away and there were clouds beneath him.

_When the light goes off you are free to move around the cabin._

"Ron, look at me," Hermione forced him to meet her eye, she was crying, "you have to pull out again. You have to go back and use the Deluminator. Something's going wrong."

"I can't go," Ron whimpered.

"I won't go until you do."

"You have to go first. When you force me out I'll go back. You have to push me out or I'll be stuck!" Ron said, clutching at the front of her skirt, "Please help me."

Hermione sobbed, rose to her feet, and forced her eyes shut before screaming.

"NO! GET OUT!"

Ron felt her leave him instantly. The ground fell away and he fell with it, landing with a thud upon muddy soil in the pouring rain. He was in a deep, narrow, hole and people were looking down at him. They threw flowers and earth down and some of them began crying and walking away.

"No, no, no, fuck no!" Ron chanted as he struggled up to his feet and clawed at the slippery sides of the grave.

Just as he put all his effort into a jump for the edge he felt warm sand slam into his face and he shook a pile of soft, golden granules off himself and two small children ran away giggling.

_We buried Daddy, we buried him, we did it. He's going to be cross with us, run away!_

Ron shook the sand away and crawled around to see a middle aged woman screaming as she unearthed a dead man from the sand with a bucket and spade.

"Oh God, oh God, oh Ginny what the fuck are you doing?" he screamed into the sky.

* * *

"I'm calling an ambulance," one of the Muggle women said as she pulled a black plastic thing from her coat pocket.

Ginny was sitting on the pavement with her jerking and sweating brother as he gasped for breath across her lap.

"One of you must have taken it!" She was screeching at the crowd, "You were all quick enough to see tiny coins spilling out all over the floor and not one of you saw my brother's inhaler?"

Kingsley was running from the house, across the square and towards them.

"Everybody out of my way!" He boomed.

Ginny looked up at him with tear filled eyes and Ron thrashed even harder in her arms.

"He was l-looking for change for the phone and it must have fa-fallen out of his pocket!" She sniffed before turning on the crowd again, "One of you bastards took it now give it back. _Give it back_!"

"Somebody must have seen his asthma inhaler, please," Kingsley said as he re-checked Ron's pockets with no luck, "can you all look around yourselves, please help us find it."

Most of the gathering of Muggles began to search the ground but others remained gawping. Kingsley glared at them and drew his wand, cast a silent Confundus charm on them so they wandered away, and then tried a summoning spell while the rest of the Muggles were distracted.

"_Accio Deluminator!_"


	13. 12 Scattered

**Scattered**

Nothing happened.

Ginny's eyes flooded with tears and she stared up at Kingsley's fallen face, desperately.

"What do we do? He needs it!"

Kingsley's jaw clenched and he pushed his arms beneath Ron's convulsing body and lifted him up.

"Let's get him inside."

Ginny scrabbled around on the ground where Ron had fallen, making extra sure he hadn't been lying on the Deluminator, and threw one final pleading look at the Muggles surrounding her.

"Anything?"

The crowd all shrugged and shook their heads. The Muggle who had been speaking into the small back device crouched before Ginny and smiled.

"The Ambulance is on its way, I'll wait here for it and take them to your house when they arrive ok?"

Ginny nodded, dumbly, and clambered back to her feet. She ran after Kingsley as he strode towards the open front door with Ron draped across his arms, limbs dangling limply, and stepped inside.

Kingsley turned to face Ginny as he reached the centre of the living room.

"I'm taking him to St Mungo's," he said in a way that didn't invite argument, "I'll send a team to modify all the memories and deal with the Ambulance call. There will be somebody to relieve you too, you can come to the hospital after you've seen that Foster's secure."

Ginny nodded and sniffed.

"You'll tell the team to look for the Deluminator?" Ginny asked, shakily.

"Of course." Kingsley said before kicking back the rug in the centre of the room, "I have a trick for emergencies," he explained as he pressed the protruding knot in one of the floorboards down and turned his foot to twist it, "If I stand on this spot I can Disapparate. Turn the knot back and cover it up after I'm gone."

Ginny nodded and was about to reach forward and take her brother's hand to give it a squeeze when the large wizard closed his eyes and turned on the spot. They were gone. Ginny wiped her face with the back of her hand and drew in a deep breath to call out for Foster.

* * *

Foster stood at the front door and watched as Kingsley ran across the square towards the crowd of people gathered around Ginny and Ron.

Ron was having some kind of fit on the floor and nobody was helping him use his Deluminator. Foster teetered on the doorstep, wanting to run out and join them, but she stayed put because of the severity of Kingsley's order as he set off that she wasn't to leave the house even if it was on fire.

She gripped the sides of the door frame and heard Ginny screeching at the watching Muggles to give something back.

"Oh no, they've lost it," she whispered to herself, her hand moving to cover her mouth.

"What...this little thing?"

She spun around and gasped as she saw he ex boyfriend Kain leaning against the wall and playing with the silver Deluminator between his fingers.

"What...What are you doing here? How did you get that?"

"Funny story," Kain said as he stuffed the Deluminator into his back pocket and drew his wand on his former girlfriend, "y'see I once told you a very special number. D'you remember that?"

Foster swallowed and tried to back out through the doorway and into the street but Kain flicked his wand at her and froze her legs to the spot.

"Please, I'll go with you but my friend needs that. It's...it's his medicine." Foster pleaded with the smirking man she once trusted and loved so emphatically.

"I told you a number," he went on as if she hadn't spoken at all, "and while it was the key to me having control over the Muggles, as soon as the man in charge steps down on the date we agreed, it does something else too. I will be running the whole country and, believe me, I will be making those Muggles suffer."

"You're insane!"

"No, I'm sick of hiding my power from them as if I should be ashamed of it. They should be ashamed of themselves because they have no natural talent or ability. They are serfs and we are Gods and that's the way it should be for them too. They should know how inferior they are."

Foster glanced over her shoulder and saw that Ron was still thrashing around in Ginny's arms and Kingsley was casting some kind of spell on the onlookers.

"Look at me!" Kain snapped, voice also sounding inside her head and she did as she was ordered, realising too late that she was under the Imperius curse.

"That Prime Minister thinks he can hold off on standing down but I'll get rid of him, I swear I will, and then it's all mine for the taking and you aren't going to give me up. You're gonna be punished for betraying me, bitch."

Foster tried to throw off the curse but it was like being immersed in warm water while the outside world was bitterly cold and she couldn't find the push to break through the surface.

"I have a special connection to my Muggle's office, whenever that number gets dialled into a phone I get a phone call too. I can find out where calls come from you know? Picked up your 'friend's medicine' and saw you at the bloody door. What a lovely surprise eh?"

Foster wanted to cry but she didn't even have control over her own tear ducts.

"Come here," Kain ordered and Foster moved closer to him.

He tapped her face in different places and swirled his wand over her head, changing her hair, and then cracked himself on the head to cast a disillusionment charm on himself.

"And now we just walk out the door to somewhere I can Disapparate with you," Kain's voice said, satisfaction clearly evident from his tone alone.

The Deluminator flew out of his back pocket and zoomed towards Foster and the door.

"Catch it!" Kain yelled and Foster's hand snatched the whizzing silver object as it passed by her side. "Good girl," he said with a relieved laugh, "why don't you hold onto that nice and tightly for me eh? I mean, it's very important to your 'friend' after all."

Foster felt her fingers gripping the Deluminator tightly.

"Walk," Kain instructed.

Foster turned and stepped out of the house, walking away from it and over to the quiet side of the square, unnoticed because of all the drama, and she caught a glimpse of Kingsley Shacklebolt lifting Ron's twitching body in his strong arms and calling down to Ginny. Neither of them noticed the strange, unrecognisable, woman walking away from the safe house.

It would have been a safe house, if she hadn't been standing at the door fretting over Ron.

There was one small burst of fight left in her, one last burst of self control, and she did the only thing she could do to make up for her mistake.

She let the Deluminator drop silently to the ground.

* * *

Hermione was hysterical and Harry didn't have a clue what to do. There was nobody at Auror HQ who had a clue what was going on or where Ron and Ginny's secret assignment was. He couldn't reach Kingsley and now the Burrow was filling with frantic redheads, gathered around the family clock and trying to work out why Ron's hand was spinning around and around.

"It's because he's everywhere, I keep telling you!" Hermione cried, "He was in the middle of an Extrication over the phone and...and...Oh God, I think that he got pulled into different telephone conversations. He was hearing other people and all these different memories were mashing together around him, he didn't know where he was and he couldn't get out."

"But if he's split all those different ways inside all those different people's heads..." George began before his words petered off.

"It's like he's mentally splinched himself," Hermione said, voice high and squeaky.

Harry put his arms around her and gave her a gentle squeeze.

"Maybe when he hung up the phone all those other people got cut off too?" He tried to find any words of reassurance he could, all the whole knowing that after an assault on the brain like that Ron had to be in incredible pain.

"But we don-hic-don't know," Hermione struggled to speak clearly through her emotions and her newly formed hiccups, "if cutting them off just cut R-ic-Ron off from his body."

"But you could push him out, right?" George said, pacing up and down the kitchen, eyes alive with the many thoughts and theories he was coming up with to convince himself Ron was going to be alright, "I could push him out when it was me, Dad did...Dad did it in his sleep. So if all those people push him out then he'll be able to get back, right?"

"Ronnie was learning to control his...ability," Molly said, worrying her hands in front of her apron, "he was getting more control. I'm sure he'll be-"

"Molly!" Arthur was already shouting for his wife as he ran from the fireplace, emerald green flames blazing behind him and then fading into nothing.

"Oh Arthur dear, something terrible has happened to Ron," Molly explained as she rushed towards her husband and flung her arms around him.

"How do you know? I only just found out!"

"Hermione was talking to him on the telephone when lots of Muggles came crashing into his head and he...he couldn't..." Molly buried her face into her husband's chest and blubbed.

"How did you find out?" Harry asked, Hermione moving to stand at his side.

"Kingsley came to my office, he was there, he took Ron to St Mungo's," Arthur said, tensely.

Everybody made sounds of relief and activity as they all moved towards the fireplace to go to the hospital to see Ron but Arthur kept one arm around his wife and lifted the other to stop them al in their tracks.

"Wait, it's not as simple as that I'm afraid."

Harry felt Hermione's body tense at his side and he held her hand, feeling his own shaking slightly.

"Arthur?" Molly asked as she stared up at him.

"Kingsley said there was some confusion at the phone box and that Ron...that the Deluminator was lost or taken, he and Ginny couldn't find it or summon it. Wherever Ron's mind was taken, he's still in there."

Hermione gasped and clamped her hand to her mouth.

"It'll be alright, we'll go and search for it," George said with confidence, "where did he lose it Dad?"

"Kingsley dispatched Aurors to the scene. They're going to search the whole town square on their hands and knees if they have to," Arthur said before swallowing and looking down at his wife's tear streaked face, "We can sit with him but he's in a bit of a state. I'll be with him if you don't think you can t-"

"I'm going to my boy," Molly said, purposefully.

"I shouldn't have left him there," Hermione mumbled to herself, "he was terrified and confused and I left him all alone."

"You were trying to set him free," Harry said firmly, "you couldn't have known about the Deluminator."

"But I knew he was scared!" Hermione protested.

George pulled her into his side and spoke softly into her hair.

"I'm scared so you can make me feel better while you hold his hand, yeah?"

Everybody began flooing to the hospital and Harry remained until it was only him and Arthur left.

"Go ahead, Harry," the troubled older man strained a smile onto his face.

"He'll be ok," Harry said with confidence, "I've seen him defeat a piece of Voldemort invading his mind. If he can do that he can handle this."

Arthur grabbed Harry's elbow and pulled him back from the fireplace, looking him in the eye with determination.

"For as long as I live, Harry, that boy will not set foot inside Bedlam," he was almost shaking as he spoke and Harry gulped and nodded, "but I won't live as long as he will."

Harry understood the point Ron's father was making and clamped his hand over the white knuckle grip around his own arm and gave a second, more confident, nod.

"As long as I live too," he said, fiercely, "I won't ever let them lock him away in the nuthouse and nobody will dare argue with me."

Arthur released Harry's arm and sighed a little in relief.

"Good. So let's go and make sure he's being treated well shall we?"

* * *

"Foster!" Ginny was tearing the place apart in search of her missing witness, "Foster!"

She jumped over the pile of junk she'd dragged out of the airing cupboard and ran down the hall to look outside again. The ambulance was pulling up and the woman with the little black phone was pointing at her. Ginny looked around the square in desperation but she didn't see any sign of the missing woman.

"What the hell happened to you, you silly cow?" Ginny hissed to herself as she strode back inside the house.

She wondered if Foster, having been the recent sufferer of a gigantic crush on Ron, had gone out to search for the Deluminator in an attempt to help him. If that were true then why wasn't she anywhere in sight?

Ginny hurried to the window to see how close the Ambulance men were but they had been intercepted by Aurors. There were Aurors all over the little village square, casting memory charms on everybody they could find, and the Ambulance crew were sent away looking quite befuddled.

Soon a pair of Aurors were entering the house, identifying themselves to Ginny, and releasing her to go to her brother at St Mungo's.

"I can't," Ginny said, voice barely even there, "the witness is gone."

"Excuse me?" The first Auror blinked.

"The witness is _gone_," Ginny said more clearly, "we came back inside, me, Kingsley and Ron, and they left and I called out for her and she was gone. I've been looking everywhere."

"Could she have left?"

"We told her she wasn't even to be seen, let alone go outside, but..." Ginny ran her hand over her hair and shook her head in disbelief.

"But what?" the other Auror demanded, firmly.

"But she was very fond of my brother and I think she might have gone out to look for his Del...treatment device."

"You think she left the safe house?"

"Well she's not bloody here!" Ginny snapped, throwing her arms wide.

"Right, get to the hospital, Shacklebolt will be there. You tell him what's happened and send him back here to sort this mess out."

"Ok." Ginny nodded.

"Bloody trainees," the first Auror huffed before turning and marching for the kitchen to look outside in the back garden.

"Hey," Ginny protested.

"Just go and tell the Minister what's happened and worry about your brother.

"You'll keep looking for his treatment though, right?"

"Yes," the man snapped, "We'll keep looking for everything you seem to have lost in just one short afternoon. Now go!"

* * *

Ron was curled up in a ball in the corner of a dusty church while a multitude of indecipherable voices bounced off the empty walls. He had his eyes closed and was trying to block out the din but every new voice was like a tiny stone bouncing off the stained glass windows until the stones were rattling the glass from the lead frames.

As coloured glass fell all around him, shattering on the stone slabs, the voices poured in after him and Ron had to crawl to his feet and run for the door to escape.

As soon as he flung open the massive wooden doors he ran into a wall of hands. Hundreds of pink and brown palms pulling him this way and that, some hands wanted to hold him and some wanted to hurt him. One tightened around his throat while another stroked his hair with the tenderness of a mother cradling a newborn.

Ron twisted free and turned around to run but two more hands slapped over his eyes and a thick voice growled into his ear.

_If you ever tell anyone about this I'll find you and kill you._

The hands lifted from his eyes and his head throbbed to the yells of 'Surprise' from all around him. Coloured balloons and streamers fell from above and the hands were all clapping. Ron took the opportunity to make a run for it but he tripped immediately and slammed down onto crisp blue sheets.

He lifted his face and looked around himself. Everything was bright and something was beeping. There were Muggle machines and wires and everything smelled disturbingly clean. He rolled over and sat on the edge of the bed, his back was cold and he realised he was only wearing a thin tabard like t shirt with no back to it.

There were plastic tubes coming out of his arms and round stickers with wires sprouting from the centre all over his chest. He pulled them off and winced in pain before alarms sounded and people ran in, ran at him, and held him down on the bed.

_He's awake! Get Doctor Fisher, the Greenslade patient just got out of bed!_

Ron suddenly felt frightened and alone, he knew there should be somebody there with him but he was all by himself. They were holding him down onto the bed and a bald man in a white coat barged through the crowd of people holding him down and stared shining a light into his eyes.

_Why is he struggling? Does he know? Did somebody tell him?_

Ron saw the hands pushing against the curtains, pressing flat against the windows; they were trying to drag him back again. He tried to throw the Muggle doctors off but his arms were heavy and clumsy and his body felt frail and weak.

_Tell him what? That the whole family died?_

Ron felt an internal scream that threatened to split his head in two and he felt a surge of rage which exploded out of him and pushed every person, every hand, every wall back and back until they were no more.

He was standing, panting, in a huge white space. The air was cool and his feet were bare. He looked down and saw that he was naked and then instantly felt as if he was being watched.

_...rumours circulating about you, we're going to have to discharge you of your duties._

Ron spun around on the spot and the white walls stretched out into a long, featureless corridor.

_You are under arrest on suspicion of the murder of your daughter Rebecca on the ninth of February..._

Ron rubbed the heel of his palm into his forehead as he made his way down the plain white passageway. The voices drifted away into just a light but constant humming.

The clean white paint dripped away from the walls to reveal dirty wet brickwork and brightly coloured graffiti that made no sense to him at all. The white dragged down the walls and pooled, muddy brown, on the ground like puddles in the gritty ground.

There were yellow and purple neon lights flickering somewhere and thumping music in the distance. More voices and feelings tried to crash in but Ron staggered faster down the murky alleyway until he reached the end and fell to his knees into a puddle. Water soaked into the jeans he was now wearing.

Two young women wearing very skimpy outfits clattered along behind him in high heels and pointed and laughed at him. He didn't care, he felt sick, he was shaking all over and some of him was hot while the rest of him was cold. There was a knot of hunger in his stomach but he wasn't hungry for food.

There were men with him, young men with lank hair hanging in their faces, and they were holding a lighter beneath a thin sheet of foil.

His stomach hurt more and his skin started to itch. Suddenly somebody picked him up and hauleed his arm over their shoulder, dragging him away.

_You don't want what they've got, come on Jamie, you're doing so well._

He felt sick and sore and like he was rotting from the inside out and he knew he wanted to go back to the men with the lighter.

_Jus'one more. Come off it slow. Please Dad._

Ron felt dreadful and there was a feeling of hate for the man with him but Ron had heard that he was a father. He was somebody's Dad. Ron wanted to cling to him for safety even though he wasn't his Dad, he was some other person's Dad, he was Jamie's Dad.

His legs buckled under him and he dragged the man down to the ground with him. He gave a strangled scream as he felt like curling in on himself and tearing off his own skin and all he wanted was his own Dad.

He hugged his arms to himself and tasted salt at the corner of his mouth and realised that he was crying.

'_It's all right, son. They're all going to go away soon.'_

"D-Dad?" Ron's whole body juddered and he blinked up at his father, _his father _– not Jamie's father, and clung to his cardigan as if it was his only lifeline.

'_I'm here. The voices should all go away soon and I'll sit here with you until they do.'_

"Dad?" He said again, feeling his father's face to make sure it was really him.

'_What were you doing wrestling that brain eh?'_ His father chuckled sadly.

Ron's heart sank just a little. He was only in a memory. He closed his eyes and held on tighter to the memory of his Dad.

He opened his eyes and realised that he had found one of his own memories. He still had some little corners of his own life in this dizzying maze of other people's emotional trauma. He had his own trauma to hide in for a little while. He had his own Dad to take care of him for a few minutes.

He gripped the old man's cardigan tighter and inhaled the familiar smell of him.

"Don't leave me Dad."

'_I swear son, never.'_


	14. 13 Falling Into Place

**Falling Into Place**

Harry watched as Hermione clutched Ron's limp hand with both of her own.

Ron wasn't sleeping, that was very clear, there were too many whimpers and flinches, but he wasn't conscious either. His whole body was tense but tired. Dreamless sleep draught wasn't doing anything to alleviate his discomfort and the Healer's attempts to put Ron into an enchanted sleep were equally futile.

Ginny stood at the foot of the bed, chewing her lip and double, triple, quadruple checking that people's presence around Ron's bed wasn't causing him more pain.

"We'd know if we were getting pulled into his mind, Ginny," Harry said as he put an arm around her.

"You heard what the Healers said," Ginny said as she watched her brother toss his head on the pillow and screw up his face in pain, "he's spread so thin in so many minds now that, to them, it feels like nothing more than a little niggle at the back of their mind. We could be in there and hurting him and we wouldn't even know it."

"So you want to go away?" Harry asked her, knowing that was the last thing she wanted.

"I just don't think...we should all be thinking...so much...so close to him."

Harry pulled her face into his chest and rubbed her back, soothingly.

"You're not hurting him by worrying Ginny, it's like expecting Ron to hear you whispering from the middle of a screaming crowd."

Ginny clung to Harry and watched as Hermione sprang up out of her seat to hold Ron as he had a full body convulsion.

"Let it go Ron," she whispered into his sweaty red hair, "It's not real. None of it is real, nothing except me. Let it all crumble away."

Ron's body loosened up and he slumped in his girlfriend's arms, twitching every once in a while.

"I love you. Can you hear me? I love you Ron and I'm here with you." Hermione whispered as she rocked him in her arms, "Find me in there somewhere. Find a place where it's just you and me and lock the door. I'll take care of you."

Harry felt his insides beginning to churn and he pulled Ginny away from himself to look her in the eye.

"I need to do something other than watch him suffer."

Ginny sniffed and nodded.

"I know but they won't let us look for the Deluminator, they're really pissed off with me, Harry. I messed up the whole mission."

Harry shook his head.

"That's bollocks and that's not what I mean."

"What do you mean?" Ginny frowned.

"I mean, we can't help him, we can't look for what he needs, so let's look for this Tracy girl."

Ginny giggled and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

"Foster, she's called Foster, Tracy is her last name. Ron keeps getting them the wrong way around."

Harry smiled and looked across the hospital room to Hermione.

"Go," she said, "I won't be on my own with him for long. There's always one Weasley or another popping in to talk to him."

Harry took Ginny's hand and they walked to Ron's bedside. Harry gave his best friend an awkward pat on the shoulder and said goodbye. Ginny leaned over, brushed her brother's hair away from his face, and kissed him on the forehead.

Ron's body twisted in Hermione's arms and his legs drew up to his chest, a strangled yelp catching at the back of his throat, and Ginny jumped away as if her being close to him had added to his massive burden somehow.

"Harry and Ginny are going now, it's just you and me," Hermione shifted further onto the bed so she could lie him across her lap, "just the two of us and nobody else, all peaceful and quiet."

Harry was amazed at Hermione's strength. She was already missing Ron and worried about him to begin with and now she was in the hospital, holding him while he writhed in pain, and throwing herself into soothing his troubled mind as best she could.

"I think he knows you're there," Harry said as he stared down at her.

"I hope so," she said with a sad smile.

* * *

His Dad had been gone for a long time now. He'd dissolved into nothing in Ron's arms and ever since then the stranded Auror had been searching his own psyche for him again.

Arms would push their way through the ground and grab at him, sometimes taking a good enough hold to pull him with them for a time, dragging him into their mind until he could shake himself free and find a neutral space or even a memory of his own.

It was getting harder to find his own place in his mind though. When he did manage it he never realised that it was one of his own memories until it was almost over and he was trying to escape it. He was still shaking all over after finding himself reliving a memory he'd blocked out from when he was very young.

His Uncle Bilius had lifted him out of his cot, it was dark and quiet, and the man's eyes were unusually wide. He held Ron before him, little legs waggling beneath his infant body, and whispered into his face.

'_You've been controlling me._'

Ron felt cold and frightened and he wanted his Mummy.

'_I keep telling them what you say to me and they tell me you can't talk yet. They think I'm mad. I'll show them.'_

Ron started crying and his Uncle gave him a short, sharp shake.

'_I'll make you talk, then Arthur will see, he'll see he has an evil child._'

Ron started squirming in the man's large, strong hands but he was too little and his funny Uncle wasn't funny any more. He was scary looking and when the door opened and light shone on his face Ron screamed as funny Uncle Bilius turned into a nasty monster.

'_Bilius, did he wake up?_' Ron's Daddy was asking as he moved closer.

'_Let me take him and settle him down,_' Mummy was saying, Ron saw that she was crying too as she reached out her hands to take him, '_I'm so sorry he woke you Bilius, dear. He's usually no trouble. Here give him to m-_'

Ron stretched out his chubby little arms towards her and burbled her name through his grizzles but Uncle Bilius carried him away and towards the window.

'_Ma-ma...he says more than that when you're not here Molly. When it's just him and me. He tells me to destroy things. He's possessed or a demon or something evil. He whispers to me all the time. When I'm all the way at home I hear him whispering his odium inside my head._'

'_Bilius, he's just a baby._' Mummy was crying more and coming closer to take Ron from the scary monster man.

'_That's what you said about the girl and she's a Banshee!_'

'_Ginny is a little baby, she's teething and it hurts so she screams. You know how babies are.' Daddy was saying as he pointed his wand at the monster._

'_Give me Ronnie, please Bilius, he's upset._'

'_The devil twin is making the good one evil too and the quiet boy knows too much. He thinks other people's thoughts!'_

'_Bilius my children are not evil or possessed or demons forced into my wife's uterus by Death Eaters,_' Daddy shouted as he lunged forward and pulled Ron out of the monster's claws and gave him to his Mummy, '_I'll do everything I can to help you Bilius, but if you ever hurt my children that will be the end for you._'

Ron felt his Mummy's warmth all around him and the sounds from the roaring monster and his shouting Daddy faded away. Ron gripped his mother's nightie so she couldn't go away but a cold chill ran through him and he found himself clutching torn rags and standing alone on an icy lake.

"Mum?" he called out, voice echoing across the grey landscape.

Just as the last of his voice faded into nothing the thick ice beneath his feet cracked and he jumped back in shock. The ice where he'd been standing fell through and into jet black water. The cracks spread further and fractured out from beneath his feet once again.

Ron turned and ran. The ice fell away beneath every footfall and the safety of the bank wasn't getting any closer. He skidded and stumbled but kept on going, snapping and cracking ice growing louder behind him until...

_Sploosh_.

Ron was swallowed up in freezing blackness, sinking fast, and the water was pushing its way down his throat and into his lungs.

'_Please stop thrashing Ron, it's not real, none of it is. I'm here and I've got you._'

Ron's eyes opened and he sat up with a gasp. He was bone dry and it was a clear autumn day. He was lying on a bed of fallen leaves, crunchy and golden, and he jumped as he heard a young girl crying her heart out as she walked through the park with her mother.

The mother and daughter were wearing bright clothing and had very dark skin. The mother's hair was wrapped up in fabric but the little girl's was wild and frizzy.

'_The trees aren't dying, child, they just like to change their look from time to time in this country. They are tired of their leaves so they are shaking them off and then, in the spring, they will be covered in flowers._'

'_Flowers?_' The little girl sniffed, calming down now.

'_Yes, Foster, flowers in all the trees.'_

"Foster?" Ron said and the little girl turned and gasped at him.

"_Ron!"_

She let go of her mother's hand and ran to him, growing older with every step until she looked like the Foster he knew.

"How many of you did I go into?" Ron said as he gripped his head in his hands.

'_Ron, you found me, in your head you found me!_'

"What?" Ron frowned.

'_This means you're still...you didn't find it. I dropped it so they would find it. It's right there in the road. Oh your poor head!_'

Foster lifted her hand to Ron's face and then drew it away sharply before touching him.

"I dunno what's happening to me, you have to get Ginny, I need Ginny."

'_Ron, she's with you, you collapsed and she's with you. I...Kain found me and took me. I'm with him at his hideout._'

"He...what?" Ron screwed his eyes tightly shut as he felt the park scene spinning around him with increasing speed.

'_I know it hurts but we're going to do something. You're going to be able to wake up,_' Hermione's voice was saying from somewhere very distant, '_just keep listening to me. Listen to me and not to them. I won't let anybody hurt you._'

'_Ron!_' Foster said as she gripped him by the shoulders and shook him.

He opened his eyes and saw a murky, narrow room with a large window facing out on to a windswept beach. Waves crashed and rain poured. The clouds were as grey as steel and the curtains framing the scene outside were ragged.

"Huh?" Ron said, shaking his head and turning to see Foster standing beside him.

'_Stay with me for as long as you can,_' she pleased, '_when you leave I'll be stuck here._'

"Where's..." Ron began before a blue light blinded him and all the voices and the pain were sucked away.

* * *

Footsteps clattered down the corridor of St Mungo's and Kingsley turned to see one of the Aurors, a woman in her forties with long black hair, hurrying towards him.

"Minister! Minister Shacklebolt!" She was calling, out of breath, as she held up her hand and something glinted in the light.

Kingsley knew what it was before she said another word.

"Oh the fl-fl-floor," the woman puffed, "in the street. This is it isn't it?"

The witch held out the Deluminator to Kingsley and he took it and spun away to run to Ron's hospital room.

"This is it, thank you Tasca!"

By the time he threw open the doors to Ron's room the young Auror was in dire need of relief. Healers were trying to ease his discomfort while Hermione struggled to keep him still enough to take the potions they were trying to pour down his throat.

Ron was shivering terribly and gasping for breath.

"I have it!" Kingsley yelled over the noise.

The Healers froze and Hermione began to sob with relief. Ron struggled, weakly, in her arms and it was then that he noticed George and Molly Weasley had been holding Ron's legs down.

"The Deluminator?" George asked, an expression of hope on his face that looked as if it didn't belong there for a moment, that face had gone from laughter to a permanent frown and all other emotions now looked wrong on it.

Kingsley nodded before looking to Hermione.

"Will it work for him?"

"Put it in his hand," Hermione said as she turned Ron's palm upwards and held it out for Kingsley to press the Deluminator into, "Feel it Ron? You have it back."

Ron was still breathing heavily and moaning softly every once in a while.

"You can hear me, I know you've been listening to me too, grip it. Come on, grip it."

Ron appeared to be trying to squirm out of Hermione's arms but didn't have the energy for it. His body drooped against her and then his face contorted tightly in pain. Hermione slid her thumb over his and pushed down on it to activate the Deluminator.

Ron's hand jerked and the device slid from his palm and onto the sheets. George offered to help and pushed the Deluminator into his brother's clammy skin before forcibly curling his fingers around the cool metal.

He held Ron's fist closed with one hand and moved the thumb across and pushed down to activate it. The lights dimmed and a bright blue ball of light swelled from the top of the Deluminator.

Kingsley reached out for Molly and put his arm around her shoulders as she drew in a breath and held it. The ball of light broke away from the Deluminator like a bubble and bobbed towards Ron's face before sinking into his head.

Ron gave a full body judder before slumping and the lights returned to full strength around the room. Ron was still and the Healers swooped down on him to make sure he was physically well. Hermione met George's eyes at first and then looked to Kingsley.

"He was lost for so long," she said in barely a whisper.

"He didn't give up though did he?" George said, his old smile trying to push its way back onto his face.

"Maybe he needs to rest," Molly suggested.

One of the Healers immediately turned around and agreed with Molly.

"All those sleeping potions and calming spells are going to take effect now. He'll be out for a long time but it's probably the best thing for him at the moment. He'll be utterly exhausted."

"Do you have any idea how long it will be before he'll wake up?" Kingsley asked.

"None, but I'd be willing to bet you could all go home and have a good night's sleep without missing a thing."

"He'll be out until tomorrow?" George said in shock.

"At the very least," the Healer nodded. "Once he does come round we're going to have to evaluate him to find out just how...troubled his mind is after the extrication."

"I want to stay," Hermione said, immediately.

"Miss Granger, you've been here all this time and it's been an awful lot of work for you. I think you need as much sleep as Ronald does."

"Then I'll sleep here," Hermione said as she took Ron's limp hand and lifted her chin, "because I won't let him wake up alone if he is...if he is..._troubled._"

"Hermione, there's no risk of that tonight," Kingsley said with a sympathetic smile, "go to bed and rest. It'll be better for Ron if you're fresh when he wakes up."

"I'll rest here," Hermione said with determination, "I can make up a small bed on the floor or sleep in a sleeping bag. I left him on his own once, I am _not_ doing it again."

Kingsley decided to leave it to the Healers and Molly to try and persuade her while he excused himself to find Harry and Ginny and let them know that Ron's extrication was finally over.

* * *

"So come on then," Ginny said as they looked through the post that had been delivered to Foster's home address while she was in hiding, "what's the big plan?"

"Excuse me?" Harry blinked, as a catalogue for 'nick-knacks for the modern witch' slid from between two old copies of the Daily prophet and thudded onto the floor.

"Well, you're the big name in finding hidden stuff that evil genius' don't want you to find. A whole person can't be as hard to find as an object you didn't even know you were looking for like the diadem."

"Yes because that arduous year of 'finding things' just flew by!" Harry huffed.

"You know where to begin to look for stuff though don't you?"

"Not exactly, if that were the case I'd never lose anything. You know better than anybody that I'm not infallible in the remembering things department."

"Forgetting anniversaries is just a man thing, not a you thing," Ginny huffed.

"Ron remembered his and Hermione's, I remember that because you were pissed off with me all over again!"

"Well Ron knows he has to remember things because Hermione's a tyrant about that," Ginny began before the wind left her sails and she turned away, not wanting to think about the state of her brother's mind at that moment.

"Hermione's not a tyrant, she's just a sponge for remembering things like dates and facts," Harry said as he stooped to pick up the catalogue, "and Ron likes to remember a couple of dates to make her happy."

"Yeah well...where did you start when you had to find Horcruxes and had nothing to go on?"

"We were on the run before the wedding was over, remember? We were ambushed in Muggle London and ended up at Grimmauld Place where we stumbled upon the story of the locket and Kreacher filled in all the blanks. Want me to go and ask Kreacher where Foster is?"

"You were obviously connected to Regulus but things like the cup and the sword..."

"Snape's patronus led me to the sword at the bottom of a lake. The cup was in a vault at Gringotts, finding a person isn't like finding Horcruxes Ginny and I had help and luck and informants...That's what we need, informants."

"Fat lot of good you are!" Ginny snapped, "I could have come up with that, asking low lives if they've bloody seen her. It's a good job I loved you before you were a hero otherwise I'd have been bitterly disappointed!"

Harry stared at her with piercing green eyes before clearing his throat and tossing the remainder of Foster's post back onto a side table in the hallway.

"It's also a good job that I know you're only acting like this because you're worried about your brother, otherwise I'd seriously reconsider going out with you at all."

They both stood apart, eyes blazing, before their shoulders fell and they moved into each other's embrace and clung on tightly.

"I'm sorry," Ginny sighed.

"Be as big a bitch as you want to, I don't think I'd really notice," Harry said with a deep sigh, "He's my brother too y'know?"

Ginny nodded against Harry's shoulder.

"What was she wearing, doing, talking about, when you last saw her?" Harry asked, clutching at straws.

"She was cooking, she makes really unique food," Ginny said as she rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Smelly food?" Harry asked, cocking his head to one side.

"Distinctively aromatic," Ginny said as she narrowed her eyes and looked at him curiously.

"See, if we had a Bloodhound of some kind of sniffer dog we could track her down by her cooking," Harry said with a smile and a shrug.

Ginny laughed.

"Maybe we could get somebody who was a dog Animagus to..." Ginny stopped herself as soon as she realised she was reminding Harry of Sirius, "Or maybe a dog Patronus could sniff her out. Can Patronus'..." Ginny stalled again, thinking of her brother, "...sniff?"

"We'll come up with something," Harry said as he took her hand, "Let's look up spells about smell. Hermione would suggest that wouldn't she? She'd say, 'go to the library', so that's what we should do. Let's go to the library and find a way to track down Foster."


	15. 14 Control

**Control**

He was still.

His body was flat on cool sheets and a hard mattress and he wasn't moving but there was a feeling of motion sickness that compelled him to roll over onto his side and throw up.

"RON!" the voice was like a punch to the head.

_Oh thank God he's awake. I should get a Healer. Why is he being sick? Oh God, what if h-_

"I need a Healer in here, quickly!"

Ron tried to tell both the Hermione voices to shut up or at least keep it down but he was still bringing up bile.

_This is too soon, he should be forced to rest some more._

"Move aside Miss Granger, I'm going to give him something to relax him."

"Don't!" Ron sputtered through his mouthful of revolting whatever it was.

_He can understand. He's not insane, oh thank you God. Thank you Merlin. Thank you, thank you thank you!_

"Has the nausea passed, Mr Weasley?" the Healer was asking him as she tried to roll him onto his back once more.

"Ron, it's all right, we got the Deluminator and," Hermione's voice was drowned out for a moment, not by the Healer but by...Hermione's _other_ voice.

_Why is he looking at me like that?_

"Why are you looking at me like that?" The exhausted looking witch repeated herself.

Ron shook his head and then wished he hadn't. The boat he wasn't really on rocked and he leaned over the side of the bed and retched again. A hand rubbed circles onto his back and he tried to shrug it off.

_That never works, he feels more sick when you do tha-_

"That never works, he always feels worse when y-"

"Why do you keep doing that?" Ron looked up at Hermione and saw her gaping back at him as if he was the mental one.

_He needs sedation; his mind's obviously been damaged. I'll get the senior Healer._

"I'll pop out and give you two some privacy," the Healer smiled at him.

Ron glared at her.

"My mind is fine. Everyone else is weird!" He spat, accusingly.

"Ron?" Hermione tilted her head to one side and leaned in closer, cautiously.

_He's not making any sense._

"Oh you can talk!" Ron scoffed before realising something and staring at her in shock.

_He must be in the same state as before only conscious. This is even worse, he'll have a total breakdown._

"I'll just quickly perform a little sleeping charm on you before I go all right?" The Healer said with an Umbridge-like smile.

"I can _hear_ you y'know?" Ron said, still looking utterly astonished.

The Healer's eyes shifted to Hermione, momentarily before her smile became alarmingly bright and even more fake.

"Wonderful news, perfect hearing, I'll be sure to report that to t-"

_He's going to snap!_

"Ron, are you hungry, I could make you a sandwich!" Hermione said, almost in a sing-song voice.

_That's it, forget her for a second and think about food._

"You don't know that there's two voices do you?" Ron said, jaw hanging open.

"Yes, Mr Weasley, there's just my voice and Miss Granger's now. Just as it should be." The Healer smiled and lifted her wand.

"Put that away!" Ron demanded before looking back at Hermione, "And I don't mean you and her, I mean you. There's two voices coming from you."

Hermione looked mortified. Ron turned to glare at the Healer.

"There's two coming from you too," he said, accusingly, "and the one you think I can't hear is planning to put me to sleep, sedate me, and send me to Bedlam."

"No!" Hermione exclaimed, casting a fierce glare in the Healer's direction.

_He's hearing voices in his head and these ones aren't real. Oh dear, his family aren't going to be able to cope with this level of i-_

"He's hearing voices in his head and these ones aren't real," Ron repeated with a 'fuck you bitch' smirk on his face, "My family aren't going to be able to cope with this level of what?"

_Fucking hell!_

"Oh my!"

Ron laughed.

"You swore," he grinned, pointing at the sunned Healer.

_He can read minds?_

"Ron?" Hermione said as he legs buckled and she sat, quickly on the corner of his bed.

"Yes I can...apparently."

_Is this good or bad?_

"Oh."

Ron wanted to take her hand and squeeze it but she was too far away.

_I've got to get somebody to see this._

"Stay calm and I'll..."

"Get somebody to see this?" Ron offered.

"Um, yes. Maybe if you tried the device again it might..."

"Ooh, you said that without thinking, well done!" Ron said before looking around himself and then up at Hermione.

_Oh, he's wondering where the Deluminator is._

"It's over there," Hermione said as she pointed to his bedside table.

Ron reached for it and suddenly thought about Foster. He'd seen the place where Foster was being kept. He could Apparate right there.

As soon as he thought about her and what it had felt like to be inside her mind, her memory, he found himself swayed by the rocking sensation once again.

_Is he going to be sick again?_

_I'll send a Patronus message to Lionel, I can't leave the boy in this state._

"Ron are you...?"

_...not as if he'll get away with it. I just can't let him try to do it. Ron needs me to buy him some ti-_

"Foster?" Ron gasped.

"What?" Hermione asked.

_What?_

"What?" The Healer repeated.

_WHAT?_

"Huh?" Ron frowned before glaring at Hermione and the Healer, "Stop thinking or talking for a minute will you?"

_Oh that's easy to do!_

_As if that's even possible. Brains don't just switch off and it's not as if I'm chattering away to myself for goodness sake._

_Now all I can do is think of things not to think. He's forced me to internally monologue. What's he going to do next, ask me not to think of an orange penguin?_

_RON? WAS THAT YOU?_

"Yes!" Ron said, excitedly.

"You _do_ want me to think of an orange penguin?" The Healer blinked in her bewilderment.

Hermione looked at the woman and shook her head.

"Oh really."

_This woman is in a position to send my boyfriend to Bedlam? I don't think so!_

"Don't think about Bedlam, Hermione," Ron said, sternly.

_Bedlam, Bedlam, Bedlam, Bedlam, Bedlam, Bedlam, Bedlam, Bedlam, Be-_

"Oh get rid of her!" Ron huffed, waving his arm at the panicking Healer.

_RON?_

"Foster, don't go, I can hear you."

"You can hear Foster?"

"Shhhh!" Ron said, holding up a finger to silence Hermione.

_How can he hear Foster? _

"I said Shhhhh!"

_He's shushing my mind! He can't shush my mind!_

"I was thinking about you and then I felt all weird and then...I could hear you."

_WHERE ARE YOU?_

_He can pick people out now? He can find people's minds? He can read minds and find minds and, oh my God, what if he can't turn it off? He'll get no peace, no time to himself, every time he thinks of somebody he'll go flying into their head. And nobody will have any privacy. He'll know every time I have a naughty thought about him!_

Ron did a double-take and his eyes bulged as he looked at Hermione.

"You have naughty thoughts about me?"

_NOT SINCE I GOT TAKEN HOSTAGE, NO!_

"Not you, Foster, I know you do."

Hermione looked furious.

"I did _not_ want to say that out loud!" Ron said, cringing before his livid girlfriend.

_OH GOD, HE'S COMING!_

"Don't worry. I remember the place I saw in your mind. You're still there, right?"

_What's she thinking to him? What's she thinking about him? Why does he know about her naughty thoughts and not mine?_

"Hermione, please!" Ron huffed.

_NO, NO, NO, PLEASE DON'T!_

"What is it? What's he doing?" Ron tried to block Hermione's thoughts out, with little success.

That was when it happened. The Healer came rushing back inside, two more of the St Mungo's staff following behind her and all three started talking and thinking at once.

_There's going to be no way to deal with this problem before he goes insane. I wonder is Lionel can do anyth-_

"He's even managed to pick somebody out and talk to them and who knows how far away this person is."

_I could write a case study on this and maybe even name the condition after myself. Of course I'd only want to be associated with a successful treatment and not a form of insanity. Who wants an untreatable condition named after them after all? How would I be able to introduce myself at parties? It'd be like me saying 'Hello, I'm Healer Do-Lally!'_

"Have you tried the device Mr Weasley? It worked last time and it might deactivate your unlimited connection with everybody who passes by."

_The poor soul, they must be screaming at him all at once. He really should be put into isolation and away from these two while we figure out a way of controlling this._

"Mr Weasley, I think we should try to m-"

_They're all thinking too much. Oh Ron does it hurt?_

"Stop it, get out, you're too much all at once!"

_RON HURRY!_

"Shut up!" Ron roared before snatching up the Deluminator and holding it to the side of his head and clicking it.

He tried to hold on to Foster's voice in his head while all the other voices were sucked away into the device. She was gone too, however.

"Shit," he said, shoulders falling as he stared down at the Deluminator in his hand.

"Ron?" Hermione leaned forward and looked up into his face.

"S'quiet," he said before taking a deep breath and letting it out. "I have to go. I need to find Foster. I saw the place and something's happening."

Ron rose from his bed but swayed on his feet. Hermione grabbed him about the waist and tried to support him as two of the Healers forced him to sit back down on the bed.

"You've been under a great deal of physical stress and you only slept a very short while. If you try to run off somewhere you'll tire almost instantly." The calmest of the three Healers said as he pulled the woman who had annoyed Ron with her out of control thoughts away.

"I was thinking that maybe we co-" The woman began.

"And there lies the very problem," the man said with a weary smile, "you are thinking far too much to be of any use on this case. You are free to attend to your other patients and thank you for alerting me so soon."

"But..." the woman looked offended to have been dismissed so casually.

"I had a patient once Ron, may I call you Ron?" The man smiled at Ron and ignored the annoyance of the Healer as she left.

The other man, Healer Do-Lally as Ron now thought of him, was hovering in the background. He clearly wanted to be a part of Ron's case and knew that by being too vocal was only going to get him sent on his way.

"Ron's fine," he nodded to the man.

"Well Ron, I had a patient who had a traumatic experience and reverted back to his childhood state. Do you remember when you were very young and would perform magic when you became angry or frightened?"

Ron nodded.

"This man was like that. So I created a room upstairs with special spells and enchantments which meant his magical outbursts couldn't penetrate the world outside the room. His magic couldn't hurt the other patients or damage the potions in the store cupboard. We were able to work freely with his control problem there."

_He's going to lock him up?_

Ron looked to Hermione but she was chewing on her lip and looking worried.

"Ron?" The Healer spoke with calm authority.

"Huh? Oh sorry, I just...thought I heard..."

_Are the voices coming back, Ron?_

Ron swallowed and nodded. The man plucked the Deluminator out of Ron's sweaty palm and examined it for a moment.

"This only provides a brief moment of relief. You will need to come to the room upstairs and we'll see if the enchantments are powerful enough to keep your ability from reaching past the walls."

"But I need to go. I have to be able to speak to Foster and go to her. He needs help an-"

"Ron, you can't leave, you're still terribly fatigued. Right now your body is recovering from an incredible physical exertion. It's as if you were exercising beyond your capabilities for hours on end. You couldn't even collapse or pass out because you were already in a state of apparent unconsciousness."

_He'll keel over before he makes it to the end of the corridor._

Ron stared at the man.

"You heard that?"

Ron nodded again.

"But I have to..."

_Harry and Ginny._

Ron turned and looked at Hermione, her eyes bright with her idea.

"Get them to come, I can extract the memory, the room I saw, and he can see it in a Pensieve and then be able to Apparate there. He can get to her." Ron said and Hermione beamed at him.

"Splendid idea Ron, I'll arrange for a Pensieve to be brought to the room and your friends can find the missing person for you."

_We'll be free to do all sorts of tests once the Auror mission is passed on to Potter. I wonder if he can empty the whole episode into the Pensieve and we can use the whole thing for the presentation. We won't even need the subject at all that way._

Ron looked at the ambitious Healer lurking by the door, keeping his mouth shut but his mind wide open, and he nodded in his direction.

"I don't want him there."

The Healer didn't even turn his head, he simply nodded.

"But Lionel..." Healer Do-Lally began to protest.

"Your only job is to go and summon Auror Potter, escort him to the room upstairs, and then get back to your patients."

_I like him._

Ron chuckled at Hermione's thought and nodded.

"Me too."

"Have another click from this," the Healer said as he held out the Deluminator, "and that should be enough to get you up to the room and past everybody else without you overhearing hundreds of people all thinking at once."

Ron took the Deluminator and then looked across to Hermione.

_I love you. It'll all be OK._

"Walk up with me?" Ron asked her with a half smile.

"I don't think you'll make it to the lift, I'll get a hover chair and Miss Granger can steer it for you. Wait here."

The Healer left and Hermione crossed the room, wrapped her arms around Ron's body and squeezed him tightly.

"Wanna share any naughty thoughts before I set this off?" Ron said as he waggled the Deluminator in front of her with his hand.

She laughed and shoved him in the chest. Ron brushed a light kiss against her lips and tried thinking back to somebody for the first time since he'd discovered this new evolution of his ability.

_I love you too._

He couldn't be sure if she had heard it, but he was certain that she knew it.


	16. 15 Mind Over Matter

**Mind Over Matter**

As the door to the charmed room on the top floor of St Mungo's was opened for Harry and Ginny to enter they froze, mouths hanging open before they had been able to announce their arrival, and they stood and gaped at Ron and the Healer before them.

The older man had both his hands clasped to the sides of Ron's head and, while Ron's eyes were closed, his face showed him to be in a deep state of concentration. His shoulders were moving with his slow, deep breaths and the Healer was talking to him in a low, soothing tone.

"There is nothing flowing in...nothing flowing out...the walls of your mind hold strong and you decide when to pass through them. You chose who you visit...when you visit...and it causes you no pain. It flows like a river, smooth and cool..."

"Mmm-hmm," Ron nodded.

Harry gulped and felt at his side for Ginny's hand. She curled her fingers tightly around his and squeezed.

"Too hard Gin," Ron said, not looking as if he had broken his concentration at all.

"Oh!" Ginny said as she released Harry's hand and then realised that her brother had read her mind.

"No pain, you see?" The Healer said, rubbing his thumbs into Ron's temples, "Like a tide washing in and falling away again. You can peer in...and drift back...reach in...drift back...and in...and back."

Harry realised that he was swaying back and forth with the Healer's words and snapped himself out of it, standing upright and clearing his throat. Ginny smirked at him.

_He's easily swayed huh?_

Ginny jumped and looked over her shoulder. There was nobody there. She looked back at her brother's face and saw the corner of his mouth was curled up a little way, eyes still closed.

"He just spoke to me," Ginny said, stunned, "he just talked in my head!"

"Good," the Healer smiled, "he needs to practice, to train his mind, and as soon as he can control the tides there will be no more floods. He will not drown in the thoughts, the minds, of others."

Harry noticed a small stone Pensieve in the far corner of the room and a silver substance shimmered within, reflecting light up onto the clean white walls.

Ron's brow furrowed and he let out a small murmur of discomfort. His hands tightened around the Healer's elbows and the older wizard looked to Harry immediately.

"Please, the door, he's not ready yet."

Harry turned to close the door, cursing himself for having left it open when he came in, but Ginny was already banging it shut.

"Is he all ri-" Harry asked, fretfully, as he took a step towards Ron and the Healer.

"Does he need to use his Deluminator?" Ginny interrupted, "Kingsley said they found it. Does he have it?"

_Shhhhh._

Ginny shuddered as she felt her brother soothing her from inside her head.

"That's really unsettling, Ron," she said before gulping.

"The Deluminator wasn't sensing that he needed help or detecting it was in his hand and activating itself," the Healer explained, "Ron's mind was controlling the power of the Deluminator."

"What?" Harry gasped.

_That's the real reason Dumbledore gave it to me, Harry._

Ron's voice was so calm and assuring that Harry found himself closing his eyes so he could feel as well as listen to it.

_Ever feel like the old nutter was reading your mind sometimes?_

"Oh my God!" Harry exclaimed.

"What?" Ginny blinked as she stared at her boyfriend, "Is he saying something to you? What is he saying?"

"Speak only to your sister now, Ron." The Healer delivered his instructions while massaging Ron's temples, the pads of his thumbs moving in tight circles.

_Let Harry fill you in after._

"Hear him?" The Healer asked her.

"I did but wh-" Ginny said with an expression of confusion.

"Did you hear him, Mr Potter?"

"No," Harry said, missing the sensation of Ron's presence inside his mind.

It wasn't like when Voldemort got inside. This was safe and welcome, familiar and pleasurable, and he wanted the feeling back.

"Speak to both of them, Ron," the Healer's instructions not sounded excited and hopeful.

_This is something about Dumbledore and I think Harry should know first. You'll know Gin, he'll tell you, but just leave it for now eh?_

Ginny gave a sad nod, feeling left out yet again. She and Ron had been getting so much closer again and now...

_Stop that you!_

Ron's voice was like a mental nudge in the ribs and Ginny laughed. The Healer spoke to Ron in the relaxing tone he had been using before.

"See what you can do without it, Ron? You can allow people to hear you and you can shut them out. It's your choice, _your_ ability; this isn't something that happens _to_ you."

_It's the scars, Harry, the brain scars and the locket...they opened me up and Dumbledore knew it'd happen eventually._

"You can't be pulled inside in the same way you were before," the Healer was saying to Ron as he continued with his massage, "and that is because you trained your mind to regain control. While you were unconscious you were overwhelmed and yet you found your friend Foster, you found Miss Granger, you found your father and your own mind. You clung to your memories, your own psyche, and this is why you woke up with your ability altered."

_The Deluminator didn't have a charm on it that let me hear Hermione's voice. I heard it in my head. My mind was searching for you both and at the moment she thought of me I thought of her and found her._

"You are in control of where your mind wanders within this room," the Healer said as he began to massage Ron's scalp with the fingertips that burrowed into his copper hair, "Now there are only three minds for you to practice with but in time the door to this room will open and the door to your mind will remain closed. It will only open when you decide to welcome in a guest. You control this, Ron. _You_."

_The ball of light isn't a trick the Deluminator can do, it wouldn't do it for anybody else, and it doesn't do it because my head is hurting. The blue light is a surge of psychic power made stronger by the light the Deluminator sucks into it. I found you with my mind and I fell into other people's memories because I didn't have any control._

"You have control, Ron," the Healer said, voice loud and strong.

_I can do this, Harry, I can. But I can't do it right now, it's too much._

"Tell me what to do," Harry said as he dropped to his knees and leaned closer to Ron, whose eyes were still closed and hair being dishevelled by the scalp massage.

_Find Foster for me. I left her alone. The... The Pensieve._

Harry glanced over to the Pensieve in the corner.

"I'll look and I'll go. You take it slowly all right? Don't push yourself." Harry looked to the Healer, who smiled and nodded at him.

"I think now is a good time to rest," the Healer said before sliding his hand around to the side of Ron's neck and pinching slowly but firmly with his thumb and forefinger, "Sleep now, Ron."

Ron sighed and fell, slumped in a boneless heap, into the Healer's chest.

"Is he going to be OK?" Ginny asked, worry evident in her voice.

"He's still too drained from the extrication into all those minds. Even if he didn't want to sleep he would have done. His body has met its limit."

The Healer tried to shift Ron's weight in his arms but a six foot four man with long, limp limbs wasn't an easy load to manoeuvre on your own. Harry offered to help.

"Want me to levitate him somewhere?"

"No magic for now, if you wouldn't mind lifting him with me we can set him on the bed and leave him in peace." The Healer supported Ron beneath his shoulders and under his thighs and waited for Harry to do the same from the other side, "Miss Weasley, would you like to take a look inside the Pensieve and get the location you need to Disapparate to in your mind?"

Ginny wandered over to the Pensieve and leaned over to look inside. She bit her lip as she saw flashes of terrible, disorientating things happening to her brother. Finally, she saw Ron and a little girl in a park. The little girl ran towards Ron and turned into an adult Foster. She gripped the sides of the Pensieve and watched as the scene moved around them and became a room. There were waves crashing and a musty scent. She fixed the image of the room into her mind and then turned to look at Harry.

"You got it?" He asked her as he lay Ron down on the bed and pulled the covers over him.

Ginny nodded.

"He'll sleep for hours, go and find your missing witness," the Healer said with a nod.

Ginny moved towards Ron's bedside and tucked him in just for the sake of doing something. She kissed him on the side of the head and whispered a thank you to him before heading for the door and not looking back.

Harry looked from Ron's sleeping face to the Healer's understanding smile.

"I won't leave him alone."

Harry smiled and nodded before setting off after Ginny.

* * *

Harry had quickly briefed his squad of Aurors that they were to wait while he and Ginny went ahead to the location Ginny saw in the Pensieve and as soon as Harry arrived he would send a _Signum Lampas_ into the sky and the others could surround the place instantaneously.

He'd also made sure Ginny remembered that she was still a trainee Auror and if he gave her an order she was to obey it with no arguments or even a pause to glare.

"This is my assignment and I can handle it," Ginny has hissed.

"Your assignment was to baby-sit a witness. Right now the assignment is to recover a kidnapped witness and that's _my_ job," Harry said, fiercely.

Ginny grabbed Harry roughly by the arms and fixed him with her most Molly Weasley-like stare before side-along Disapparating with Harry to the room she pictured inside her head.

With a swirl of colours and a feeling of compression they moved from the Auror headquarters to the room Ron had spoken to Foster in. The musty smell Ginny had experienced while looking inside the Pensieve struck them both instantly. They drew their wands and Harry signalled to Ginny to search for Foster, protect her and as soon as she could, Disapparate back to Headquarters with her.

Ginny nodded to Harry and sent a silent revealing spell across the room to see if Foster was hidden or if any magical traps had been set for them. The room was clear and she turned and watched Harry as he moved swiftly into the hallway, sweeping his wand everywhere his eyes travelled before beckoning her over to the door beside him.

Ginny flattened herself against the wall and waited for Harry to move so she could take up his position. Harry edged down the hall and pressed himself into the tight space beside the window. He flicked his wand through the dirty glass and whispered the incantation.

"_Signum Lampas!_"

Ginny pointed her wand at the opposite end of the hall and whispered a spell to search out Foster.

"_Reperio Foster!_"

Harry looked a little put out that she'd acted without him first giving the nod but he said nothing and covered Ginny as she moved out of the room and after the swirling silver mist as it sought out Foster's magical trail.

Ginny crept through to a dark and dingy back room, the one window was covered with a thick orange curtain that filtered out most of the light, and she peered into the gloom before Harry's hand gripped her shoulder and pulled her back so he could make sure the room was clear.

Harry swished his wand across the room, casting a non verbal _Petrificus Totalus_ on anybody who might be inside and then watched as Ginny's spell sank into the carpet and faded into nothing.

"Oh bloody marvellous," Ginny hissed, "you just killed my locator spell!"

"No talking," Harry mouthed to her in annoyance.

Ginny gave him a two fingered salute and it was immediately clear why Harry and Ginny were never going to be able to work together professionally. For now though, for Foster, they had to.

"What kind of spell dissipates and fizzles out into the carpet?" Harry whispered before lifting his wand to cast his own locator spell.

Ginny grabbed his arm to still it and Harry huffed to tell her to forget about her ego and let him do it when he saw that she wasn't being confrontational. She was looking as if she'd been struck by a thought. Harry made a gesture with his hands to ask her what she was thinking and her eyes moved down to the carpet and then back to Harry before widening, meaningfully.

Harry frowned and mouthed 'what' while glancing down at the carpet, blankly.

"_Muffliato!_" Ginny said as she swished her wand past both of them, huffed and then spoke clearly, "Maybe my spell didn't fade and sink into the carpet? What if my locator spell _located_ Foster underneath the carpet?"

"She's under the carpet?" Harry said, doubtfully, looking back at the perfectly flat, dusty thing.

"Or under the floor via a trap door that could be covered with..." Ginny waited for him to catch up.

"Oh!" Harry waved his and to lift the spell and then banished the carpet from the floor.

Sure enough, underneath was a trapdoor. Harry advanced, keeping Ginny well behind him, and pointed his wand down at the trap door.

"_Alohomora!_"

The trap door flipped open and Harry threw a shield charm before Ginny before diving to one side and sending a spell down into the darkness.

"_Petrificus Totalus!_"

Ginny didn't wait to be told, she dropped down into the darkness and Harry carried on through the house until he got to the back door. There was no sign of Kain and no surprise attack. Harry opened the door and waved some of his squad inside.

"Search everything, everywhere, and don't trust anything. He's dangerously clever." Harry left the others and ran back to the back room, "Ginny, stand back, I'm coming down."

Harry waited for a beat before dropping down through the square hole in the floor and landing with well practiced grace.

"_Lumos!_"

His wand tip lit and he cast the beam of light around himself before spotting Ginny repeatedly trying to lift Harry's freezing spell from a rigid Foster.

"What did you do?" Ginny asked him, shocked and frustrated at her inability to lift the spell.

"I've got this new thing I've been doing to double the strength of simple spells...here, I'll lift it," Harry said as he crouched and flicked his wand at Foster's wide eyed face.

The stiff body relaxed and Ginny looked at Harry and arched an eyebrow.

"Does that extra power thing work on...?" She began.

"It must do, you're not pregnant are you?" Harry smirked, "You Weasley women are terrifyingly fertile and I'm not ready for a full time baby. I can barely handle Teddy on Sundays."

Ginny chuckled and helped Foster up.

"Are you all right?"

She nodded and rubbed beneath her eyes, sniffing.

"Did you get him?"

"The others are looking, it's OK, Miss Tracy," Harry said with the confident air that only a modest hero type of man can pull off.

"If they're looking then he got away," Foster said, shakily, "Kain doesn't wait to be found."

"Was he going to come back for you?" Ginny asked as she scanned her friend for injuries.

"He's always gonna come back for me," she said as she let Harry help her to her feet.

"No, we're going to stop him," Harry said with determination, "and you're going to be able to go wherever you want and do whatever you want. Not more hiding, I promise."

Foster was about to smile at him when she gasped and gripped Ginny's sleeve tightly.

"Ron, I left his Deluminator where you would find it but he was in my head, he was lost, and that was ages after Kain took me!"

"We found it, he's going to be fine, he helped us find you." Ginny smiled.

"He showed Ginny where you were," Harry nodded, "you're both going to be all right."

* * *

Ron felt peaceful. There was a soothing touch rubbing through his hair and against his scalp. He exhaled with an audible sigh and cracked one eye open.

With a start, he sat up and gaped at his brother George.

"You...You...You were...You...?"

George shrugged, unusually bashful for him.

"The Healer said it helped you and would keep my thoughts from disturbing you while I sat here. I didn't wake you did I?"

"No, I...I'm thirsty, that's all." Ron said as he shifted to sit up properly.

"I'll pour you some water," George said as he reached for the jug on the table beside him.

Ron stretched and yawned before looking around the room.

"Is it still the afternoon? I feel like I've slept for hours."

"It's the afternoon, yeah," George smiled, "It's tomorrow afternoon as far as you're concerned."

"What?" Ron gasped.

George laughed as he handed the glass of water to Ron.

"You slept right through. The Healer had to go home but he didn't want to leave you alone. He said Harry asked for company and I," George shrugged and looked around the walls of the empty room so he didn't have to look at his brother, "you're...mine to take care of."

Ron blushed and grinned before testing himself a little.

_I'm bigger than you, remember? I reckon we'd better take care of each other._

"Wow," George said as he gaped at Ron before the spark of mischief blazed behind his eyes, "Oh, the mayhem we could cause with this!"

Ron laughed and George sat back and put his feet up on the bed while he began listing all the ways they could tease their mother.

It was the first step to the giant weight being lifted off Ron's mind.


	17. 16 Reaching Out

**Reaching Out**

"What do you mean I'm not on the list?" Foster asked the Mediwitch on watch outside Ron's room, "Harry Potter told me I could come up and see Ron any time I wanted to. He said Ron had put me on the list of people who were allowed to come in."

"There is no Foster Tracy on this list."

Foster sighed and shook her head.

"I bet there's a Tracy Foster though eh?"

The woman looked down at her list and smiled.

"Ah, yes, must be a common mistake. You can go right in."

Foster pushed open the door and stepped inside. She saw a figure under the bedcovers and a head of red hair on the pillow. Smiling as she realised Ron was finally getting some well earned rest she tip-toed over to the chair at his bedside and sat down.

Ron had his back to her and she thought it for the best that she couldn't see his face. There was nothing to set an infatuation in stone more than watching your crush sleeping. Sitting in silence with Ron gave her time to reflect upon choices she'd made and she began to wonder if she could have seen signs of the true Kain early on in their relationship.

She couldn't put it down to her having poor taste in men after all, Ron was wonderful, so was it something else?

She had been drawn to, and had fallen in love with, a total sadist. He was cruel and fanatical and dangerous and she had missed all that and trusted him completely.

She had tried to do the right thing and ended up hospitalising Ron and getting Ginny thrown off the case. She'd been captured and rescued and after all that Kain was still out there, trying to hurt people.

The most painful thing was that all her friends seemed to have known. She had lost them all because they didn't like Kain, had a funny feeling about him, or would tell her to leave him every time she told them about things he'd said to her when they were arguing.

She'd actually become one of those women who said 'You don't know him like I do' and pushed her friends away. Some of them didn't allow themselves to be pushed easily but, soon enough, she'd stopped answering their owls and socialising with them altogether.

She and Kain had moved away together and she'd lost touch with everyone from her old life. Kain had become her life. It was the scariest thing she'd ever done when she left him and went to the Aurors to tell them what he had done to all those Muggles.

He was still out there and she was still hiding. She'd never be able to go back to her old friends and say sorry, ask them to forgive her, and maybe build some bridges. She hadn't thought herself able to trust any man after what had happened with Kain but then she had met Ron.

Ron was warm and open and his good heart and complete devotion and vexation with his little sister let her see what a real man was. He was transparently kind and flawed and loyal. When he entered a room it felt like a better place. Ron lifted tension and Kain was exactly the opposite.

He was weight and darkness and surly, dangerous, mood swings that she was always made to believe were her fault.

_You woke me up._

"Oh, sorry R-" Foster froze and realised that she'd imagined Ron talking to her.

The body lying in the bed shifted beneath the covers and then rolled over to face her, eyes still closed.

_No problem, I'm glad you're all right._

Foster gaped at Ron's face. His lips hadn't moved but he was talking to her.

"Ron, are you...are you...?"

He yawned and began to sit up in his bed, eyes cracking open, and before his jaw-cracking yawn was finished his voice was already reassuring her inside her head.

_I wasn't listening, well not intentionally._

"I didn't mean that," Foster said as she dragged her chair closer and looked into his sleepy, smiling face, "you're in my head only it's not the same as before."

"I learned a few new tricks," Ron said out loud, making Foster jump all over again at the rawness of his voice.

"You need your rest and I'm thinking too much. You'll get a headache if I stay h-"

"It doesn't hurt," Ron smiled as he spoke, "and you're not trapped in your own memory either. This is different. This is new."

Foster sat forward, eager to hear good new about Ron's condition.

"They did say that you didn't need the Deluminator to cope anymore. You're getting better then?"

"Well, I get worn out if I take on too much but my Healer's working on helping me fine tune. The Deluminator helps clear my head if I lose track of who I'm tuned in to."

"Oh, I'm glad I got it back to you then," Foster said with a broad grin.

Ron reached over and took her hand.

"I wanted to thank you for that, what you did, Ginny told me and I asked her to thank you for me. Did she thank you for me?"

"She did," Foster said, reassuringly.

"I would have come for you myself only..."

"Ron, stop it, you did more than enough for me."

Ron looked away, bashfully, and Foster let go of his hand. They sat in uncomfortable silence for a minute before Ron reach across for a glass of water and Foster jumped up to pour it for him from the jug.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

While Ron drank the silence hung heavy between them once more. He set down the empty glass and drew up his long legs to cross them beneath the sheets.

"So I make a connection to somebody's mind and I hear them," Ron said as he picked at the bobbly blanket draped over the sheets, bunched halfway down with all his fidgeting, "and the first time was a fluke but I thought the voices were coming out of it so I was clicking it and wanting to be with the voices. The light came out and it took me too them."

"And your mind created the blue light?" Foster asked, with fascination.

"Yeah. Then, when I activated it when my head was hurting, I wasn't thinking about getting to anybody or contacting anyone but I did want my head to stop bloody hurting, so..."

"You were healing yourself too!" Foster gasped.

"That's the way it looks, yeah."

Foster looked at him with admiration at his modesty and his calm attitude to this discovery that he had a unique and incredible power within himself.

"You'll find someone who deserves you," he said, "I know you will."

She wanted to fling herself at him and hug Ron until his bones cracked for saying such a nice thing. Just as she was about to ask him to tell her more about his improving health, the door opened.

"Oh!" The bushy haired witch said as she saw Foster.

"Hermione!" Ron beamed, "Did you meet while I was sleeping or have you not...?"

"No, we haven't," Hermione said, shaking off her shock as she carefully closed the door behind her, "hello, I'm Ron's partner, Hermione."

"You're not my partner," Ron said, face crinkled with confusion, "Ginny's my partner."

"Ginny's your sister," Hermione said, pointedly, "_I'm_ your partner."

"You're not even an Auror," Ron said, still utterly lost.

Hermione's jaw clenched, tension evident in her shoulders, and she fixed a scary smile onto her face and widened her eyes at him as she spoke.

"You are my _partner_ in our _relationship_."

"You mean you're my girlfriend?" Ron said, beginning to smile.

Hermione huffed and turned her attention to Foster.

"Hello Foster, Ron's told me so much about you."

Foster shook Hermione's hand and noticed that Ron was looking up at his 'partner' and stifling a chuckle.

"Calm down Hermione, you're scaring her," Ron sniggered.

"What _are_ you talking about?" Hermione huffed.

"I know what you're thinking," Ron said, teasingly.

"Well that's something that's going to have to stop. It's very rude to snoop around in people's private thoughts like that," she hissed, becoming flustered and flushed in the face, "it's an invasion of privacy."

"I didn't read your mind," Ron said as he grabbed her around the wrist and pulled her into a sitting position on his bed, where he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek, "I read you. It's the only book I know better than you do, the book of Hermione Granger, and I memorised every page."

Hermione's blush was threatening to engulf her whole upper body now and she grew very embarrassed in front of Foster.

"Ron was just telling me how sure he was that I'll be able to find somebody I can trust again," Foster said as she pushed her chair back and got to her feet.

"You're going?" Hermione said, voice higher than it should have been.

"I just wanted to thank him for helping me and I know he's not fully recovered yet so I shouldn't give him my thoughts to block as well as yours." Foster smiled at Hermione, "It's so nice to finally meet you, you're just as Ron described you."

"Oh," Hermione said, face falling.

Ron snorted and Foster giggled.

"He described you positively."

"Oh," Hermione said again, this time leaning into Ron's side and smiling.

"I have an Auror waiting to escort me to a new safe house, he's not as nice as you and Ginny," Foster said with a glum shrug, "but he's bigger than Kain so at least I can look forward to a really good fight if he does show up."

"He won't, Harry'll find him," Ron said with a confident nod.

Foster gave a wave and turned to leave.

_I'll find him Foster. I'll find him and Harry and Ginny will bring him in. I promise._

* * *

Kingsley had called in the old Muggle Prime Minister and explained that they needed somebody to replace the brainwashed politician while they modified his memory and kept him in protective custody.

They needed somebody who knew about the Magical world but who understood Muggle politics and could cover for the missing man's job. An ex Prime Minister would be ideal. The only problem was convincing the man to Pollyjuice into his disguise every day.

He made his way along the corridor and towards Ron's secure room. He'd been hearing great things from Harry and Arthur about Ron's progress and the last time he'd passed Hermione in the corridors of St Mungo's she had a skip in her step that took him by surprise.

Nodding to the Mediwizard who was busying himself outside the secure room, Kingsley knocked on the door and then let himself in.

"Afternoon Auror Weasley," he said with a broad grin and a slight nod.

"Hi Kingsley," Ron said, pushing himself up into a sitting position and sounding very tired.

Despite the obvious weariness, Ron looked pleased to have company and smiled at the most powerful man in the wizarding world as if he was nothing more than a favourite uncle.

"Overdoing it?" Kingsley asked, trying to appear stern as he cross his arms in front of his chest but not able to stop grinning.

"No," Ron said before yawning and then laughing at how that must have looked, "I just woke up from a nap. My Healer's gonna come by and give my head a few more exercises."

"It's going well according to Harry."

Ron nodded before looking at Kingsley with apprehension.

"Do you mind? Just for practice I mean. I've learned this filtering thing so I can talk without hearing every thought back. All your important stuff will stay secret...or it should."

"I trust you Ron, go ahead and practice."

_Thanks._

"Huh, I understand what Harry meant now, it is a strangely pleasant feeling."

_Really?_

"Yes, really." Kingsley nodded before moving across the room and pulling up a chair to sit down with Ron, "Can I talk back to you in my mind?"

_Yeah, the Healer does it a lot, most people prefer to answer me out loud though. Less weird I s'pose._

Ron shrugged and reached over to a plastic tub Hermione had left for him. He pulled off the lid and offered the contents to Kingsley.

_Muggle biscuits?_

"No th...Wait, yes. It'll be fun talking to you with my mouth full."

Ron had stuffed a whole Bourbon into his mouth and was crunching away as he spoke inside Kingsley's head.

_I know!_

_SO...CAN YOU HEAR ME?_

Ron chuckled around his mouthful.

_Yeah, don't shout._

_OH RIGHT. HOW'S THIS?_

_Still shouting. Don't worry about it, just talk if you like._

"I'll practice, it'll be good to have an Auror I can give covert instructions to."

"So..." Ron said before covering his mouth and swallowing.

_Sorry._

"...you still want me then, in the Aurors I mean?" He finished.

"There was never a moment when we didn't want you, Ron."

Ron's ears reddened and he quickly grabbed a Garibaldi and stuffed it into his mouth.

_Thanks._

Kingsley leaned across and gave Ron a reassuring pat on the leg before sitting back in his chair and looking around his room.

"You don't get bored in here?"

_Don't get the chance, not between visitors and working with the Healer on my so-called skills._

"There's nothing so-called about them," Kingsley said, sternly, "So, what about being by yourself all this time? You're not lonely?"

_It's peaceful, it's nice y'know? After the days of practicing and being OK for people, training with the Healer and building up my mental strength, the quiet at night is welcome._

"No longing for company at all?" Kingsley smirked.

Ron narrowed his eyes and swallowed down his mouthful.

"What have you heard?" Ron asked out loud.

"Nothing," Kingsley shrugged, failing to look innocent.

"Bloody Ginny!" Ron huffed, rolling his eyes and kicking out his legs under the bedcovers.

"She merely mentioned that Hermione found the peace at night pleasant too."

_It was only one night._

"I didn't say a word in judgement, Ron."

_She's not a...a...she's not one y'know? She's a lady and not a tart!_

"You old romantic!" Kingsley winked before booming with laughter.

Ron huffed and threw himself back against the pillows behind him.

"If you weren't the Minister for Magic..."

"You'd what?" Kingsley smirked.

"I'd be able to tell you to sod off."

The two men were laughing together when the Healer opened the door and stepped into the room, leaving the harmed door wide open behind him.

"I'll get out of your way," Kingsley said as he rose from his chair.

"No need, we're going out today aren't we Ron?"

Ron looked apprehensive and nodded. Kingsley frowned, he wasn't sure Ron should go off wandering until he'd honed his ability to block thoughts out of his mind properly.

"Um, are you sure?" Kingsley frowned.

"Very," the Healer nodded, "we've been building up to an excursion and today's the day."

Ron was chewing on his lip while this interaction was going on, his eyes fixed upon the open door, and the Healer picked up the Deluminator and slipped it into Ron's hand.

"Don't worry, you can use this at any time to bolster your strength, all right?" The man said, placing a hand on Ron's back.

Ron nodded and the Healer laughed before patting Ron on the back.

"Come on, what kind of Healer would I be if I let you drink and think? Maybe afterwards we can open a bottle."

Kingsley was puzzled. He hadn't heard Ron's thought that time but the Healer clearly had. Then he realised that Ron could pinpoint who he wanted to hear or be heard by and this made the quiet observer eager to see just how much control Ron had managed to gain.

The Healer looked down at Ron's legs, under the bedclothes, and then Ron moved them and sat up, cross-legged. The Healer sat where Ron's legs had been and faced him. Ron took a deep breath and nodded.

The Healer placed his hands on either side of Ron's head and began to rub, gently and rhythmically, while Ron closed his eyes and continued with his deep breathing.

_Kingsley?_

"Ye-" Kingsley stopped himself and replied inside his mind, trying with all his might not to shout at Ron.

_I'm here._

Ron was nodding again and Kingsley realised that Ron had now opened two separate streams of communication, one with the Healer and another with him.

There was quiet for a short while before the Healer spoke out loud.

"You're doing very well. Mr Shacklebolt?"

"Yes?" Kingsley moved forward to assist in any way he could.

"Ron needs you to check something for him, would you mind?"

"Not at all. What does he need?"

_Kingsley, I've found my way outside a little way. There's a man really close by, like right outside._

"Y-"

_Yes, there was a Mediwizard on duty when I came in earlier._

There was a pause and the Healer smiled.

"Go on, you can do this." The older man said.

_Further down the corridor...woman...cleaning. Another woman getting closer, really cross about something._

Kingsley looked over his shoulder at the open door and then back at Ron again.

"Has he found anybody else?" the Healer asked.

"Yes," Kingsley nodded, stunned.

"Would you step outside and see if he's identified them correctly?" The Healer said, still focused completely on Ron.

Kingsley hurried to the doorway and looked out and down the corridor. An old witch was supervising a charmed mop as it moved back and forth on the floor and flicking _Scourgify_ charms against the walls.

Heels clip-clopped down the shiny floor and a stern looking female Healer marched along, getting closer with every step. Kingsley puffed out his cheeks, impressed with Ron's gift for long-distance sensory perception.

_Really, furious she is. OK, so downstairs there's more people. Oh loads more. _

"Downstairs?" Kingsley exclaimed, "He's downstairs!"

"Yes, he's taking it one floor at a time," the Healer said with a nod.

The hands still worked their soothing circles on the sides of Ron's head and Ron's breaths were still deep and even.

_It's gonna take a while to sort through. I'll do the patients first, they aren't moving around._

"Do the patients? What does he mean? What's he doing?"

_Don't panic, Kingsley, I'm just counting. Popping from one to the next to the next and separating each one of them._

"Is he calm? Methodical?" The Healer called over to Kingsley.

"He is but I don't understand."

_If I can identify everybody around me then I can shut them all out and once I can shut out the whole hospital I can leave the room and go to a normal ward._

"You're...He's finding every single person in this hospital?" Kingsley gasped, "He can do that?"

The Healer smiled and, for the first time, looked away from Ron's face and straight at Kingsley.

"This morning he found his brother all the way in Pune. Apparently the food's disagreeing with him but there's a very buxom wench at the Indian dragon preserve who's been rubbing his tummy for him."

Kingsley laughed at this, more in amazement at Ron's ability to speak to Charlie on the other side of the world than what the Healer was saying, and he felt the connection with Ron inside his mind and embraced it.

_Wait, that woman, the angry woman...she's coming in here to stop us._

"What?" Kingsley gasped as he saw the Healer shoo the Mediwizard away and bundle Kingsley back into the room with no regard to him being the most influential man in the magical world at the moment.

"What?" The Healer asked, looking to Ron and appearing to be confused at the lack of tension in Ron's body if something was going wrong.

"_What_," the angry witch shouted as she slammed the door to the magical room closed behind her, "do you think you're doing Lionel?"

"He was in the middle of a mental exploration and you just closed the door!" The Healer snapped at his colleague.

Ron opened his eyes and let out a shuddering breath.

"You didn't get permission from the board to take this next step. We told you our reservations and still you let him lose on an entire hospital of innocent people?"

"Let him lose? I'm helping him close them out, not invade them all you stupid bloody..."

The raised voices raged on and Kingsley watched Ron reaching for a glass of water and taking a sip before lying back against his pillows, looking worn out.

_Are you all right?_

Ron lifted his head and smiled at Kingsley, at his voiceless words, and gave a one shouldered shrug.

_Knackered._

Ron smiled and then rubbed his forehead with his fingers. Kingsley moved around the arguing Healers and lifted his hands to Ron's head, then began massaging just as he'd seen the Healer doing before.

_Better?_

"Mmmmm..." Ron sighed, eyes closing.

_Need the Deluminator?_

_Nah, need sleep._

Kingsley pushed Ron back and pulled the covers over him before turning and grabbing both Healers by the arm and forcibly removing them from the room.

"Take this outside you two, your _patient_ is trying to sleep!"


	18. 17 Let Them Eat Cake

**Let Them Eat Cake**

Hermione held Ron's hand and walked with him along the corridors of St Mungo's.

"Are you all right?" She asked him for what was now the seventh time since they'd left the magically protected room.

"I'm fine," Ron smiled to her.

He still looked tired out and was frequently napping but there was a clear improvement in his condition. The Healer had explained it to Hermione in a way she could understand. As she walked down the corridor she could hear people around her talking, a buzz of chatter, and despite this she wasn't listening to them. She was aware of people's voices but none of them distracted her and none of them were being listened to or intruded upon.

This was what it was like inside Ron's head. He was aware of the bustle of thoughts all around him but they weren't overpowering his own, his mind was under no strain. If he chose to pick somebody out and hone in on their thoughts he'd be able to hear everything as clear as day but unless he did that the person's thoughts would sound just as distant as their spoken voice.

It was strange for him and took some getting used to. The Healer and Kingsley had presented a united front to the board of Healers at St Mungo's and informed them that Ron wasn't to be hindered from training his mind in any way and if anybody took issue with that they were to resign immediately.

Nobody had uttered a word.

Ron would leave his room, now a private but unprotected one, and walk around getting used to his new ability and his control over it. He had taken to going down to the cafeteria and having a cup of tea and some lunch with whoever was visiting him that afternoon. Ron had promised to buy Hermione some cake and was prodding her to find out what she'd prefer, fruit or chocolate.

Just as they walked past a closed door Ron shuddered before continuing on.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, squeezing his hand in concern.

"Neville's visiting his Mum and Dad," Ron said, still looking as if he'd had icy water poured down his back, "poor sod."

"He wouldn't want to think he's upsetting you, come on, let's just go." Hermione put her arm around his waist and steered him away and into the lift.

"It's like when I felt that funeral when I was in the cottage with Ginny and Foster," Ron tried to explain but Hermione did her best to distract him with her decision on the cake issue.

"I think I'd like something sticky and gooey for a change, the sort of thing I'd be too proper to choose, do you think they'll have something like that?"

"If they don't we can always buy some gooey stuff to drip all over a normal cake," Ron said, mood brightening as the lift descended further from the wards where the really hopeless people were.

The doors pinged as they opened and they stepped out. They were crossing the reception area and heading towards the cafeteria when Ron stopped, pulling Hermione back with him and smiled.

"Wait, Ginny's here."

"Where?" Hermione said as she looked around the bobbing heads for any sign of a red one.

"She's just coming from Quidditch, playing for the Auror team...they won but she seems pissed off about it," Ron said as he squinted and tipped his head to one side, "I don't think they let her play."

"No," Hermione said, disappointed for her friend, "the whole reason she joined the Auror programme was to get on the team."

"Hey, where you two off to?" Ginny said as she pushed her way between two robed men blocking her way.

"Having lunch," Ron said before letting go of Hermione's hand and reaching up to ruffle his little sisters hair.

"Care to join us and pour out all your woes?" Hermione offered, reaching out to take Ron's hand again as he lowered it to his side and then realising that he had put it into his pocket very deliberately.

She knew what he was doing, he was embarrassed to be seen holding hands with his girlfriend by his sister, but it still dampened her mood.

"Yeah, I was coming to see the pain in my arse anyway, may as well eat with him," Ginny grinned and led the way, leaving muddy tracks behind her.

"Did you come straight from the field?" Ron called after her before placing his hand lightly against the small of Hermione's back and then moving it away again.

_Sorry._

Hermione realised that Ron had felt the effects of his involuntary snub on her and was trying to make it up to her without giving Ginny any ammunition to tease him. Hermione rolled her eyes as smiled at him, she never would truly understand the dynamics of sibling relationships, and they wandered over to the counter to pick out their lunches.

"So Quidditch wasn't good then?" Ron asked her as he slid the empty tray along the rows of sandwiches and rolls.

"You nosing around in here?" Ginny asked, tapping the side of her head.

"No, you just look huffy and not furious. You're furious when your team loses, not huffy."

"You did feel the huffiness first though didn't you?" Ginny said as she picked up a custard tart and placed it on the tray.

"You're my sister," Ron gave a one shouldered shrug, "if I can get away with doing it to anyone it should be you."

Ginny swatted at him with her hand before taking a large sausage roll from the heated cabinet.

"Keep it open," Ron said, nodding to the clear flap his sister was lowering, "I want a Cornish pasty."

Ginny took out a pasty for Ron and set it on the tray beside her sausage roll.

"Want anything hot Hermione?" Ginny asked, holding the flap open.

"No, thank you, I'm having a cucumber sandwich." Hermione smiled.

"Why?" Ron and Ginny said as one before laughing at their unified voice.

"I like cucumber sandwiches and if I'm going to have cake too..." Hermione said as she gestured to all the hefty foods on offer.

"Oh be adventurous for once," Ron teased her, "have a pickled onion too!"

Ginny chuckled and grabbed a cool bottle of pumpkin juice and a glass to put on the tray.

"So how did you get to play, or try and play, anyway then? Didn't they give you a new assignment?" Ron asked Ginny.

"No," Ginny said, grumpily, "I think I'm being blacklisted for messing up."

"You didn't mess up," Ron protested, "I was causing a bit of a distraction and bloody Kingsley was there too, you were deferring to the orders of the man in charge."

"Well not blacklisted but I am being taken off field work." Ginny said as she reached the cake stand and paused, knowing that Ron would be stopping there, "I'm on academic study. You know what that is? I read case notes all day. Quidditch is my only chance to do anything physical all day."

"And they wouldn't let you play," Ron said sadly as he put a hand on her shoulder.

"That's bullying in the workplace and it's not right," Hermione said, bee buzzing loudly in her bonnet, "you could file a formal complaint that an incident that occurred under the most senior of supervision is being treated as something you're to be held accountable f-"

Ron pulled Hermione in front of him and then walked her, pushing her body forward with his chest, over to the cake stand.

"Pick your sticky cake my indignant flower," Ron grinned.

Ginny laughed and Hermione huffed and muttered to herself while scanning the various cakes on offer.

"There, that one," she pointed to a Victoria sponge.

"That's a plain sponge, that's not sticky," Ron said, with disapproval.

"It has jam between the two layers, that's sticky," Hermione pointed out.

"Your sandwich has butter but you wouldn't say you're having a greasy lunch would you?" Ginny asked, eyebrow arched.

"Oh what do you call a sticky cake then?" Hermione said with a tut.

Ron jabbed his finger against the glass case.

"That one is, lemon drizzle, drizzle is sticky."

"And the toffee one looks like it'll weld your teeth shut," Ginny said, gleefully.

Hermione was looking as horrified as only a dentist's daughter could do at the prospect of eating a toffee drenched cake when Ron slammed both palms onto the case and his eyes widened.

"What? What have you seen? Do they have gateaux?" Ginny gasped as she rose up on tiptoes and tried to see right to the back.

Ron saw one of the dinner ladies staring at him in shock and he pointed at her.

"You! You have chocolate cake! You've hidden a slice of chocolate cake!" Ron said as if he was revealing that she was a master criminal.

"'E dunno wot 'es talkin' about," the woman said, flushing in the cheeks.

"It has a gooey chocolate filling...it ooozed when you cut it," Ron said, furious that chocolate was being kept from him.

"If it ain't there," the woman pointed at the display case, "we ain't got none."

"We know you're lying," Ginny smirked, "you can't lie to him." She gestured to her nearly salivating brother

Ron turned to Ginny, his sister, his ally.

"She has chocolate cake that oozes chocolate. I _know_ she does!"

"Ron, she said no chocolate cake, just pick something else." Hermione tried to reason with him but knew it was in vain.

"I'm a patient," Ron said, jabbing himself in the chest, "I can't leave and buy chocolate cake somewhere else, you can, give me the cake."

"There ain't no bleedin' cake!" The woman said, puffing out her chest and digging her fisted hands into her hips.

"Oh give over, Elsie," one of the other dinner ladies said as she reached under the counter and pulled out the slice of chocolate cake, "here ya go."

Ginny laughed and looked across to a desperately embarrassed Hermione.

"He joins the Aurors to fight evil and ends up triumphant over a dinner lady."

* * *

The commiserated with Ginny over her Quidditch debacle and updated her on Ron's progress and soon enough all that was left was their tea and cake.

"So when you get back the Aurors are gonna love you, you and your super powers," Ginny sighed, "I'm beginning to think I should just pack it in and try out for the Harpies whether they think I'm experienced enough or not."

"So you're not the best at something therefore it's not worth doing?" Ron said, casting her a stern look over the rim of his teacup.

"I didn't say that, I just think that it shows that being an Auror isn't why I joined the training programme. This was never what I wanted to get out of it so...I should get out of it."

Ron held his disapproving look for a moment before swallowing his mouthful of tea and sighing.

"You cared about your work when they let you do it though. You cared about protecting Foster."

"But I didn't protect her did I?" Ginny said, "It's the only thing I regret about this whole, Ginny the Auror mess, I let Foster down and she's still not safe."

"She will be," Ron nodded before digging his fork into the rich chocolate cake and lifting a moist, gooey chuck to Hermione's lips, "_I'm_ going to find him."

Hermione opened her mouth to ask Ron what on earth he was talking about and he shoved the cake between her lips before she could get a word out.

"You can't duel yet Ron, you've still not got all your strength back and..." Ginny began listing Ron decided to cut her off early in her flow.

"I am well aware of what I can't do," he said wearily, "I am surrounded by people telling I can't do this and I can't do that. Me being down here getting my own lunch is going to be the pinnacle of my day. I didn't say I was going to fight him, I said I was going to find him."

Hermione swallowed her mouthful of cake and Ron began to gouge out another viscous forkful of rich, dark, moist sponge, dripping with the thick chocolate sauce.

"Ron, finding and talking to Charlie in India is one thing but this man isn't going to be pleased to hear from you. He could...you could get hurt." Hermione said, worriedly.

"I wouldn't actually be there for him to hurt," Ron said.

"This man is clever and powerful and cruel and if he felt an invader inside his mind he could do anything to you. He could do something to your mind and you're still recovering from the last time you overstretched it."

"I'm not talking about popping into his head and waving hello," Ron huffed.

"So you'd find him and put what you see into a Pensieve and the Aurors would come and he'd be gone, just like before." Ginny said, leaning across the table to fix Ron's eyes with her fierce gaze, "and for all we know he knows how he got found out last time and has come up with a defence against you trying again."

"I won't be using the same method. The first time Foster drew me into her mind and this time I will seek him out." Ron said with determination, "When I was with Foster she was trapped in the thought with me but I don't do that anymore. There's no way he can be prepared for me."

Hermione opened her mouth to challenge Ron's logic and he thrust the forkful of chocolate cake into it. He looked his sister in the eye and a spark of defiance flickered between brown and blue irises.

"I'll find him and then I'll go into a volunteers mind and help them Apparate right there." Ron said, calmly, "I'll stay with them and fight with them, the power of two wizards, fighting against one psycho."

"They won't let you do that," Ginny said, unblinking, "the Aurors won't give you one of their men to use like that."

"And why does it have to be a man?" Hermione added.

Ron opened his mouth to respond and Ginny grabbed a lump of cake with her fingers and shoved it into Ron's mouth as he tried to respond.

"Because if he said it would be a witch he'd know I'd want to do it to make up for the mess I made of my one and only assignment," Ginny said, fiercely.

"If yoo fink puttin thish in my mouf ish gonna shut me up den..." Ron said, spattering the table with crumbs.

"You have to give me this Ron," Ginny implored, "this case will be my only case, I'm going to hand in my notice and go for a professional Quidditch career, and I can't leave the department a failure. I can't leave with Foster still under protection and a target. You have to let me do this with you."

"He's not doing it!" Hermione snapped, "Ginny this is dangerous enough just for him to go looking for this man with his mind, but to join with an Auror and fight?"

"I," Ron swallowed before continuing, "am still an Auror and I can find him without permission if I want to. If they won't give me an Auror to physically go there..."

"Then what? You'll go yourself?" Hermione said, pushing the plate carrying the remnants of the cake aside, "Ron I had to hold your hand and watch you suffering once already and I won't let you do it again."

"What if you didn't just hold my hand," Ron said to her, meeting her eyes and challenging her to be a part of his scheme, "when Lionel is with me he's talking to me the whole time, he massages my head so I can't get lost, he sees that I have the Deluminator ready in case of emergency."

"You want me to rub your head while you send your mind who knows where to fight with a madman who brainwashed one of the most powerful Muggles in the country?" Hermione exclaimed.

"I want you to understand that I will do this and I'd rather do it with you taking care of me," Ron said before nodding to the plate that was cast aside and forcing a smile onto his lips, "I shared the last piece of chocolate cake with you, that's big, can't you do something big for me?"

"It's not funny," Hermione whispered, grabbing Ron's hand and squeezing it tightly, "you were suffering so much and I couldn't do anything to help you..."

"You did, you talked to me," Ron said, placing his other hand on top of hers, "and it was like an anchor to keep me from drifting too far. You want me to do this without an anchor?"

"I don't want you to do this at all!" Hermione said, apparently knowing she was fighting a losing battle.

"But I'm going to," Ron said, "because I can find him and I can make the person fighting him twice as strong as he is and give them the best possible chance rather than sending them into a dangerous situation and don't you fucking _dare_ Ginny Weasley!" Ron was still looking at Hermione but pointing into Ginny's face, her mouth open and ready to speak.

"You're doing a lot of shutting other people up while demanding to be heard today," Hermione said, softly, "maybe if you let Ginny say what she's going to say you'll understand how I'm feeling when I hear you wanting to take this risk."

"If she lets you take the risk you'd bloody well better let me," Ginny said, sitting up straight and lifting her chin.

Ron looked from one to the other and then to the plate of what remained of the chocolate cake. He picked up the plate and pushed his chair back as he stood.

"Can't have my cake and eat it eh?" He looked from Hermione to Ginny before turning and walking away, "I'll do it without either of you."


	19. 18 Kain

**Kain**

Ron was sitting, cross-legged, on his hospital bed when Ginny shoved the door open so hard it banged against the wall.

"Stealth is your greatest gift, Ginervra."

Ron closed his eyes and began concentrating. He heard Ginny's shoes clip-clopping across the floor and then felt a punch on the shoulder. He opened his eyes and scowled at his little sister. Hermione was leaning against the doorframe, clutching her side and out of breath, and she stepped in and closed the door as soon as she heard Ginny raising her voice.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ginny demanded.

"I need to concentrate and my sister is screeching at me?" Ron offered as an answer.

"You can't fight him, you can't even fight me right now, so what do you think you're going to do?" Ginny said as she slapped him on the arm again.

"I'll get Harry to go," Ron said, smugly.

Ginny looked betrayed and Ron's defiant smirk fell from his face instantly.

"Of all the people," Ginny said, voice no longer raised but emotions much more intense than they were before, "I thought would understand how it felt to be seen as the nobody tagging along behind the great Harry Potter..."

"Oh come off it," Ron said, without the attitude required for his words to pack a punch, "the golden girl, the little princess, mummy's miracle – it's never been the same for you."

"Ron, stop it." Hermione said as she approached the bed.

Ron and Ginny were still looking into each other's eyes.

"You got to fight," Ginny said, fists balled tightly and shaking with frustrated anger, "Harry got to fight, Neville got to fight...I got to stay at home after Easter because it was too dangerous."

"I seem to recall you at the final battle," Ron said with a sarcastic smirk.

"Yes, I was the only one who wasn't allowed to go and fight!" She snapped, "Do you remember that?"

"I remember you charging off and doing what you wanted, whether it was a help to the rest of us or not. I can't send you to fight Kain for me. Whoever does go has to _listen _to me and do as I say."

"I will," Ginny said as she sat on the edge of his bed and leaned forward to intensify their unblinking connection.

"I don't believe you," Ron said, unable to keep from laughing.

"Ron, if somebody's going to be your right hand while you're still too ill to fight, it's going to be me," Ginny said, before leaning right in so they were practically nose to nose, "and to prove that this isn't about my ego...I'm gonna be the one to blink first."

Then, with a smile, Ginny slowly blinked.

"You'd be my...my...whatever the word is?"

"Proxy," Hermione whispered to him.

"Poxy?" Ron frowned.

"No," Hermione chuckled, "she's be acting as your proxy, fighting your fight, she'll wield her wand because you can't go to battle with yours just yet."

"But she's my little sister," Ron said, pain flashing in his eyes.

"When I'm a hundred years old you'll still be reminding me you've got that extra year on me won't you?" Ginny sighed.

"It's not an age thing," Ron aid as he shifted on his bed, "it's...it's a...I'm your brother and I'm supposed to stop you getting hurt, not be there while you do."

Ginny looked at him for a moment before putting a hand on his knee.

"Y'know what," she said to him, with emotion tightening her vocal chords, "if you hadn't been there when Fred died I might have lost Percy too. Maybe if Fred hadn't been there you and Percy would both have died."

"Harry wanted to protect us and go after the Horcruxes alone," Hermione said as she too sat on Ron's bed, "and if he had done how many times over would he have been dead? If you and your amazing mind hadn't tracked us down and kept on searching and searching in the dead of night, in the freezing snow, Harry would have drowned."

"If you're with me you know I'll be okay," Ginny said, "and I'm not going to stay an Auror so it doesn't matter if they throw me out for doing this without permission."

"They won't let you go, Ron, not with all you can do now." Hermione rubbed her hand up and down his back, "If you asked Harry to do this he could get into all sorts of trouble...and what makes you think he'd take orders from you either?"

"Oh great, so _nobody_ listens to me," Ron grumbled.

Ginny punched him in the chest in frustration.

"That's because you're always talking shit!"

"Not the way," Hermione warned her in a sing-song voice.

"You think I don't respect you, don't listen, won't swallow my pride and squash down my ego just so I can help you...help Foster?"

"If I mess it up-" Ron began.

"I have faith in you," Ginny said, "and I know that you won't. Don't you have any faith in me?"

* * *

Ron was waking up from his nap, slowly. It had been agreed that, no matter what was to happen, Ron was to sleep well beforehand for the sake of his head. As he grunted and rolled onto his side her felt a gentle hand stroking his hair back from his forehead.

Opening his eyes a crack he saw Hermione smiling at him and sighed against the pillow.

"How long was I sleepin'?" he mumbled.

"Not long enough," Hermione said, still stroking his hair, tenderly, but her tone harder, "not for what you're planning to do."

"Don't start," Ron said, blinking, blearily up at her, "where's Ginny?"

"She went back to her stimulating filing job and is waiting for you to contact her so she can leave with you to bring Kain down."

Ron closed his eyes and turned his face further into the pillow.

"I can't believe she talked me into letting her do it. I should get my head examined."

"Again?" Hermione said with a sympathetic smile as she raked her fingers through his hair.

Ron allowed himself a weary laugh before yawning and opening one eye to look up at her once more.

"Harry's-"

"Got a job to lose and Ginny hasn't," Hermione said, firmly, "and Harry loves running off and doing things alone too. What makes you think he wouldn't let you take him to Kain and then eject you to do battle alone?"

"But Harry's fought alone loads of times," Ron protested, "and Ginny...Mum had to fight Ginny's battle for her because she thinks she's more capable than she is. She's like the opposite of me."

"Ginny's very capable, it's just that Bellatrix Lestrange was older, had no limits, and was mentally unstable."

"Are you saying my Mum was a match for her because she was mentally unstable?" Ron asked, affronted.

"No! Well...to be honest, yes she is."

"How could you sa-" Ron pushed himself up on his elbow, offence clear upon his face.

"Bellatrix Lestrange was mentally unstable in the face of a total stranger buttering a piece of toast. Your mother was, and always will be, an incredibly dangerous witch when confronted with somebody trying to hurt one of her children."

Ron's eyes flickered with understanding but his defences remained up.

"Well, me being with Ginny when she fights...that'd be what I'd be like. I won't let him hurt her."

Hermione sat forward and kissed Ron on the lips before moving back a fraction and looking him hard in the eyes.

"What you have to understand isn't that you can be strong enough to protect her," Hermione said as she cupped his face with both hands, "it's that, if she thinks you're in there with her, Ginny's going to become as psychotic as her mother in order to protect you."

"It has to be Ginny," Ron said, nodding.

"It has to be Ginny," Hermione said with a single nod, "because Harry would sacrifice himself but Ginny would do anything to protect you while you're inside her head. You'll both perform way beyond your usual capabilities in order to keep the other safe."

"Harry wouldn't-" Ron began.

"No he wouldn't risk you," Hermione interrupted, "but he wouldn't let you take the risk of protecting him either...and sometimes he needs it. He's needed you since he went into the Aurors and you took care of George."

Ron was about to say something to her when his eyes darted to the wall beside the door and widened. He gasped and then quickly whispered.

"I'm asleep and you don't think you should wake me...I had a headache!"

With that, Ron closed his eyes and lay still in his hospital bed.

Just as Hermione was about to ask him what on earth he was doing the door opened and Harry stepped inside.

"Pssst! He awake?" Harry asked as he tried to look past Hermione to Ron.

"Uhhh...he's asleep," Hermione lied in the terribly transparent way she always did, "I don't think I should wake him."

"Oh right," Harry said, sounding dissapointed.

"He had a headache!" Hermione added with too much volume.

_Oh, you are crap at this!_ Ron thought to her before muttering something and turning over in his bed.

* * *

Harry had eventually left and Ron and Hermione were both feeling guilty about lying to him, especially considering how Harry had sat with the supposedly sleeping Ron in the hope that he might wake up and have a chat with him.

Harry was missing his best friend and when Ron wasn't sleeping he was being visited by somebody else. They couldn't remember the last time it had just been the three of them together, let alone just Ron and Harry, and Ron worried that once the plan was over maybe Harry wouldn't be speaking to him at all.

While Ron sat on his bed, cross-legged and eyes closed, searching for Kain, Hermione unpacked potion bottles from her bag. They hadn't said anything to each other since Harry had left. Hermione had put up a do not disturb sign outside Ron's door and told the Mediwitch in attendance that Ron had overdone his mental exercises and needed some uninterrupted sleep.

He'd never been in Kain's head before, but he knew he would recognise it when he got close enough. He had picked up enough of what it felt like from when he was tuned into Foster and was finding that poisoned needle in the haystack, slowly but steadily.

His breaths were slow and steady. He pushed through the sea of minds and thinned the mass by focusing in on magical folk, blocking Muggles out of his mind altogether, and then his search progressed much faster.

"Drink this," Hermione said as she pushed the lip of a small bottle to his mouth, "it's strengthening solution."

Ron drank without breaking his focus and the surge of new energy he experienced cut through the minds as if the blade of his own had been sharpened. He was soaring past crowds of thought, through walls built up by powerful Occlumens, and across open spaces of Muggle populated areas.

Now he felt as if he was leaning over a table filled with jigsaw pieces, searching through for one particular patch of blue sky that fitted into the mass of blue he had already pieced together. He searched the scattered fragments, the various thoughts and minds he had narrowed his search down to, and then made a pile of puzzle pieces with nothing but blue sky on them.

Sweeping away the pieces with straight edges Ron quickly cast aside the types of minds that didn't fit the psychopath pattern and then leaned in close to explore all the remaining brains.

_Not you, not you, not you, not you...maybe...no...where are you?_

"Ron breathe," Hermione said, her hand sliding across his back, "don't hold your breath while you look."

Ron exhaled; not realising that he'd stopped his steady breathing exercises at all, and took another slow breath in. Several of the minds fell away from him and he was hovering outside one possibility for Kain. He sent a thought into the mind, one word, Foster.

Ron's back straightened, his whole body stiff, as the wave of fury and hate filled him. Hermione gripped his hand tightly and Ron absorbed the psychic fingerprint of the mind so he would be able to find it again before letting it go. He slumped over, panting heavily, and squeezed Hermione's hand back.

"Found him," Ron gasped, "I found him."

Hermione reached for a glass of water and forced Ron to drink it all down before she perched on the side of his bed and waited for him to continue.

"It's time to get Ginny," Ron said to her.

Hermione kissed him on the lips and then reached for the other tiny potion bottles.

"Here, you have to take these first," Ron opened his mouth to question her but Hermione held up her hand, pressing her fingertips to his lips, and spoke with supplication in her voice, "please, for me."

Ron nodded and she let her hand fall away from his mouth. She handed him the smallest bottle.

"It was all I could get my hands on, Felix Felicis, drink it all down."

Ron looked at her and then down at the pipette sized bottle before smiling at her with gratitude and swallowing the trickle of golden liquid without a word. Hermione pulled a rubber stopper free from another bottle, this one a three inch high crystal carafe, and handed it to Ron.

"All of it?" Ron asked her.

"All of it, it's a wit-sharpening potion, it'll help you keep your mind separate from Ginny's and Kain's."

Ron gulped the bitter tasting liquid down and pulled a face as Hermione took the empty carafe and set it aside.

"Here, quickly, this one," she said as she lifted a cup to his mouth and tipped it back.

Ron opened his mouth and gulped down the fizzing brown stuff before swallowing, burping, and then looking at Hermione, puzzled.

"What was that?"

"Coca-cola," Hermione smiled as she set the cup down, "something sweet to take away the nasty taste for the one before."

Ron grinned at her and they both laughed. Hermione lifted another small phial and handed it to him.

"This one's tasteless, drink it all. Alphatian oranges are steamed and the steam is distilled into pure water. It'll stave off headaches for a while."

Ron drank it down and then grabbed Hermione by the shoulder to pull her into a hug.

"Thank you," he whispered into her hair.

She curled her arms around him and buried her face into his chest.

"I just want you to be safe. Promise me you won't leave me."

"I promise."

"Promise me you'll protect your mind as much as you protect Ginny's body."

"I promise."

"Prom-" Hermione began before Ron lifted her head and kissed the rest of her anxiety away.

She sighed into his mouth and Ron stroked her cheek before resting his forehead against hers and smiled, sadly.

"It's time for me to get Ginny."

Hermione nodded and then moved around to sit on Ron's pillows, her legs spread on either side of his body, and waited for him to lie back against her. Ron shifted around on the bed and reclined, moving lower down the bed so he was able to rest his head upon her chest, and using her thighs as arm rests.

"Are you gonna be comfortable?" Ron asked her as he felt her fingers pushing through his hair in readiness to begin his head massage.

"I'll be fine," she whispered into the side of his face, "just make sure you remember to listen to me while you're fighting. I'm no good as an anchor if you don't stay connected to me, you'll just drift away."

Ron looked over his shoulder and up at Hermione.

"I'm staying with you, no matter what, I swear."

* * *

Ginny was hauling another stack of parchment over to the desk she had been assigned when she shivered and then went rigid as she felt her brother finding her and trying to tether his mind inside her.

"Ron?" she whispered.

_I'm here, I'm ready._

"You found him?" She said, still speaking aloud but keeping her voice as low as she possibly could.

_I've got him. You have both wands, right?_

Ginny pulled her wand from her belt holster and then reached for Ron's in the inside pocket of her Auror robe.

"Yours is in my left hand, will you be able to do this left handed?"

_I'll be doing this no-handed, Ginny!_

She rolled her eyes and gave a short laugh.

_You just hold it and use your own wand. I'll defend you with mine. Hermione's with me and she's ready. You need to find somewhere you can Disapparate from._

"I'll go to the training yard, it's not being used, will I go right to Kain or to nearby?"

_Right in front of him. I'll throw a shield up before he knows what's happening and you have to hit him right away._

Ginny nodded.

"I'm glad you'll be with me."

_Don't make me regret it. Go on, get to the training yard._


	20. 19 Duel

**Duel**

"Hermione," Ron said as he readied himself to pour himself into his sister completely.

"I've got you, the Deluminator's in your right hand, feel it?" She spoke shakily into his ear.

Ron squeezed the device in his hand and nodded before taking slow, deep breaths, as if he was a diver about to submerge himself in the water.

"I'm going now," he said, "help me go."

"I'll be right here the whole time. You can come back whenever you want." Hermione was speaking with forced confidence as she began to rub the sides of his head through his hair, "Just keep listening to me, don't get lost, don't let go, just listen."

Ron's whole body relaxed and he felt Ginny holding a wand in each hand and standing in the open space of the training field.

_I'm coming Ginny, don't fight me, it'll wear me out._

He felt her preparing herself and her mind and pushed through the remaining psychological resistance before flowing from his own body, through their extrasensory connection, and pouring into her mind.

"Breathe Ron, breathe!" Hermione whispered from what felt like another world away.

Ginny was staggering forward and flinging her arms in front of her to brace herself as she dropped to her knees and vomited.

_Ugh! _

"Ron, hold still, stop squirming!" Hermione was pleading with him.

_Sick._

"Yeah, sorry," Ginny said as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and then spat the nasty tasting residue from her lips, "that was like a head rush only sideways."

_Sick._

"Ron? Are you going to be...?" Hermione stopped and Ron felt himself throwing up too.

Ginny gripped handfuls of grass and gagged, nothing coming from herself but reacting to Ron's own regurgitation many miles away.

"Oh this is nasty," Ginny coughed and spat again.

_Wait..._

Ron was feeling seasick as his awareness hovered between his physical body, and what it was doing over the side of the bed, and the body his mind inhabited.

_...wait...one sec...I'm choking!_

"Hermione has you, let Hermione help, leave your body with her and let it go," Ginny said as she struggled back to her feet, wobbling as she stood upright again.

_No, but...I have to keep a hold. I have to stay tethered. Just gimme a minute._

Ron closed Ginny's eyes and put her hands to her head. He focused on Hermione and felt her rolling him back into a sitting position, leaning back against her, and he could hear her voice again.

"It's passed, you're fine, don't fight me anymore. Just breathe deep and work with Ginny."

He felt Ginny shiver as she heard the voice too.

_We should have practiced this before. This is going to be harder than we thought._

"We don't have time to practice, Ron," Ginny huffed as she opened her eyes, "you're going to have to settle into my skin pretty quickly if you're planning on defending me."

_Don't you dare force me out as soon as take you to him!_

"I won't but you have to remember that voices in my head are going to be more distracting for me than they are for you."

Ron thought about this and came up with new spin on his blocking technique. He could feel the connection with Hermione, the stress on his head being soothed by her fingers, and then he fine tuned his place inside Ginny's head.

As if he was visualising two tangled pieces of string before him and mentally untangling them until they were two separate pieces, Ron found that he could maintain the two separate lines of contact without either string tangling with the other.

"Ron?" Ginny asked him, nervously, "It just went quiet, are you okay?"

_Mmmm...just organising...something._

"It feels different, what are you doing?"

_There, she won't distract you now. You and Hermione are separate in my head, you won't be able to hear her while she helps me and I can still use my wand through you without you being bothered by my thoughts._

"But I want you with me, I want to hear you, Ron."

_You will, when I need to talk to you or you me we'll talk like we are now. It'll just be less confusing for you when I'm thinking to myself or listening to Hermione._

"But what about you? Won't it confuse you?"

_It'll be like chess, don't worry. I'll have my mind in the game as I play, the next few moves, and what's going on around me too. I can do this._

"So you're split between the two of us now?"

_Yup, just have to create a third channel and find Kain again, then I'll lock him out so he doesn't distract you an-_

"You're splitting yourself three ways for this fight!" Ginny gasped, "You can't do that. You can't go inside his head while I'm attacking him. I'll hurt you."

_I won't be in him like I'm in you. I'll just be reading his mind so I know what to defend us against before he even starts the incantation._

"But..."

_This is how we're going to beat him, Gin. He won't be able to get a spell in edgeways and you can attack the hell out of him without worrying about defensive spells._

"Three ways, a three way split in your mind? I don't like it, Ron."

_And I didn't like you being the one to physically duel with Kain but I listened to you._

"Don't start that again," Ginny began before Ron felt Hermione's breath on the side of his face.

"You're too tense, relax, you need to stay calm through this Ron." Hermione's distant but soothing voice drifted through his head.

"We can't keep going over the same old ground. I'm doing this and I'll fight with your help. I won't reject you and you're not going to reject me. This is our fight, it's the only way we're going to win it."

_Ginny, stop._

"What? Ron, what's wrong?" Ginny's panic flooded through Ron's mind.

_No, no, no...doesn't help when you do that!_

Ginny didn't understand that her concern was weighing down the connection with her and he pushed back from it to yell out loud to Hermione.

"Panic attack!"

He felt her fingers weaving through his hair, the pads of her fingertips pressing circles against his scalp, and her heart beating against his back.

"Easy...stop thinking about what you're doing and just feel your way around. Act as if you're on your broom." Hermione's calm was flowing into him and he eased back into his connection with Ginny and channelled the serenity into her as well, "You're just hovering in the air, high up, and you're about to zoom off into the distance."

Ron hummed as the nerves melted away. He felt his body growing heavy against Hermione's and his mind lightening inside Ginny's. All the weight was lifting from his sister and pushing him into a state of deep relaxation as he slumped into Hermione's supportive form.

"Weightless." Ron sighed.

"That's it," Hermione said, sounding as if she was smiling, "That's exactly it."

Ron felt the beating of Hermione's heart against his back and her slow rhythmic breaths easing him back to Ginny until he wasn't aware of his body anymore. All he could physically feel were the heart beats and slow breaths penetrating through him.

Hermione was still rubbing his head and murmuring into his ear as he felt himself tightening Ginny's left hand around his wand.

_Do you trust me to handle this?_

Ginny did nothing but nod, the calming effect of Ron's change of demeanour had set in and it filled them both with confidence.

_I'm gonna find him again, get ready, we'll go in as soon as I have him._

"I'm ready."

Ron took a deep breath, sent a wave of love and thanks to Hermione and then sent a spear of thought out of his mind and across the country, across the sea, and back over land again and into a small house surrounded by a dry stone wall.

Kain was hiding on the Isle of Man. Ron put the name into Hermione's head and read the first thoughts that flickered into her mind, independent of the British Isles, not governed by the mainland government, not a member of the European Union.

Kain was planning to bring down the Muggle world via their government and was hiding out in the one place that wasn't under their jurisdiction. He was clever. He was like the Muggle leaders of the past who would send their citizens to war from the safety of a bunker far from the battleground.

Kain was hoping to destroy everything from a safe enough distance away. The main flaw in this plan was that, being so far away, he wasn't able to monitor the government at Westminster. He didn't know that Kingsley was protecting it, removing the risks, and there was no way Kain could suspect or intervene in the defensive strategy.

Ron hovered on the outside of Kain's mind. He let his mind flow over all the channels he had open at once, thoughts rippling beneath his ethereal touch, and he felt Hermione soothing his physical self and pouring calming vibrations into him. He felt Ginny, primed and poised to do battle, and waiting for Ron to Apparate her to the enemy. He sensed the ignorance of Kain, relaxed and unaware that there was any kind of threat. This was the moment.

Ron hummed a silly jingle from the Wizarding Wireless Network as he drifted into Kain's mind. He hummed a few bars more before Kain joined him and completed the tune. Ron had done it. He had connected with Kain's mind without him realising it. As far as the sociopathic wizard was concerned, all that had happened was a familiar tune had just popped into his head and now it was gone.

Ron was in and Kain wasn't ready for them. He could see the room around him clearly now, see exactly where to picture to Apparate with Ginny, and he sensed that there were no anti Apparition spells around the house. Kain had his wand, loosely in his hand, and turned to wander into the kitchen.

That was it, Ron had a full 360 degree view of the room, he'd be able to picture the spot behind Kain and bring Ginny in with his back turned towards her. Kain flicked his wand at the boiling kettle and then swished it so the water filled the teapot. This is why he was holding his wand so idly, he was making a pot of tea.

Kain walked back into the living room and turned on the wireless, Ron's humming had obviously put the idea of listening to the news into Kain's head, and this was it. It was perfect. Kain was distracted, though armed, he had his back to the empty room and he didn't suspect a thing.

Ron rushed back to Ginny, gripped the wand in her left hand, and gave her his first command.

_Close your eyes._

Ginny did as she was told and Ron pasted the image of the room across her mind's eye.

_Go!_

Ginny turned and Disapparated to the room immediately. Her eyes opened as the crack made Kain jump and spin around, raising his wand, but Ron was already casting the shield charm through his wand in Ginny's left hand.

_Protego!_

Ginny raised her wand and thrust it towards Kain as if it were a sword as she spoke the curse with ferocity.

"_Plactum!_"

Her curse thudded into Kain's chest and slammed him back against the wall, picture frames and ornaments crashing to the floor around him, and she sliced through the air with a horizontal movement and hissed a follow up spell his way.

"_Conicio vis!_" Her spell connected with Kain's body and Ginny jerked her wand up to the ceiling, pulling his body up and smashing it into the wooden beams above.

The connection broke and Kain fell with a thump back down onto the carpet. Ginny was about to step closer to send down an incarceration spell, but Ron read the wizard's mind and sent a blaze of blue energy from his wand zigzagging across the room.

The spell cut between Ginny and Kain, just as the panting man sent a blaze of white flames from the tip of his wand directly at her, and the fire struck the energy shield and followed its course into the sofa. Kain was just diving behind it for cover as it burst into flames. Ron had reacted to the man's plan to hold Ginny back with the fire and get cover behind the large plush piece of furniture with the same speed Kain had cast the spell. He'd diverted the attack and destroyed the cover in one go.

"Oh you're good," Ginny said before rolling away across the floor, changing her attack position just as the Auror trainers had told them to do in battle, and bellowing another attack at Kain as he jumped up from behind the blazing sofa. "_Expugno!_"

Kain was beaten back by solid bursts of energy from Ginny's wand and as each one struck it began to uncoil and wind around his chest, arms and legs.

"_Libero!_" He grunted as he struggled against his limited movement to flick his wrist and direct the release spell at the magical restraints.

He raised his wand as soon as he could and was about to send the wall behind Ginny crashing down upon her when Ron read his mind and reinforced the wall, cast a shield across the whole space before his sister, and then sent a fogging spell at him so he wasn't able to see his target or any means of cover or escape any more.

_You move in, I'll hold a bubble shield around you._

Ginny smiled and ran into the fog. There was a scraping sound, as if wooden chair legs were scuffing across the bare floorboards from a person blindly bumping into it, and Ginny threw a spell in the direction of Kain's clumsy movements.

"_Preoccupo!_"

"Piss off, bitch!" Kain spat in frustration before a red spark darted through the fog and bounced off the bubble shield.

"How are you using both those wands? _Corrumpo wands!_"

The breaking spell missed so badly that the shield didn't even need to deflect it. Instead the grandfather clock by the door was blasted into pieces.

"This is why you do everything by brainwashing?" Ginny said with a derisive laugh as she advanced through the diminishing fog, "This is why you have to mess with people's minds instead of fighting like a man? You're a pathetic little coward who does cruel and evil things from as far away as possible. You're nothing, you're useless, no wonder you resent that Muggleborns can become more powerful wizards and witches than you are!"

"Shut your fucking mouth!" Kain shouted, Ginny could make out his faint shape before the daylight of the window he stood before and raised her wand, "I don't need to duel with Mudbloods and blood traitors and Muggle scum with their mechanical weapons...with my mind I can strike them down while I make the tea!"

"Your mind isn't impressive," Ginny snorted, "you can order somebody else to set off Muggle weapons while you make your tea but I know somebody who can find you, fight you, read your mind, and all the while snuggling up with his girlfriend in bed!"

Kain had no comeback from that. Ginny flicked her wand at him as he shifted before the window.

"_Stupefy!_"

Kain fell over in shock and the spell hit the glass behind him. The fog was released through the jagged hole in the window and Kain sprang back up and flung a hex at Ginny.

"_Prosterno!_"

Ron's shield still held strong and the hex fizzled out. Ginny threw the stunning spell at Kain for a second time.

"_Stupefy!_"

This time the spell hit him square in the stomach and sent him flying backwards through the broken window. The remaining glass shattered and fell from the frame as Kain landed heavily on the grass outside.

Ginny took a running jump out through the window after him and Ron deflected the cutting curse that ruptured the bubble shield and then tore at her sleeve.

"You're under arrest," Ginny said as she landed, "come quietly or come screaming but you don't have any say in the matter about coming with me."

_Hark at you!_

Ginny stifled a laugh at Ron's amusement before flicking her wand at Kain's body.

"_Incarcerous!_"

"_Sepelio!_" Kain sent the magical ropes whipping away and tangling around shrubbery and rose bushes, "I'm gonna rip your heart out and send it back to the Aurors in a box!"

"I'm not an Auror," Ginny said, fiercely, "I'm a friend of Foster's."

_The glass, Gin, he's going to slash you with the glass!_

Kain pointed his wand down at the shards of broken glass and opened his mouth to perform the levitation spell but Ginny swiped her wand before her and stopped when the tip was aimed at Kain's body.

"_Spargo!_" The glass was flung away and out towards Kain

_Protego!_ Ron shielded Ginny from the flying glass from behind her and then she felt him gasp and panic. _Oh no, shit, no. Protego Totallus!_

"Ron?" Ginny said, fearfully, before looking at the wild look in Kain's eyes and screeching her own defensive spells to back up Ron's. "_Protego! Expelliarmis! Stupefy!"_

_Attero!_

Spells flowed from both wands in Ginny's hands but Kain was able to avoid Ginny's and was unaware of Ron's spell to weaken whatever he might be about to throw at them.

"Ron, what is it?" Ginny whispered to herself.

_I can't stop him, there's nothing that stops it!_

Ginny gaped at Kain and opened her mouth to attack him with everything she could think of but he was already growling his curse.

"_Ava-_"

_Get down!_

"_-da Kedavra!_"

_Accido!_

Ron had sent the spell at Ginny herself to knock her off her feet and onto the ground. The bolt of green light cut through the air above her, bisecting the space where she had been, and she felt Ron's panic rising as Kain stepped forward and stood over her.

_No, no, no, NO!_

"_Crucio!_" Kain roared, panting and bleeding heavily as he directed his wand down at Ginny.

Ginny raised her wand and screamed the disarming spell, hoping to knock Kain's wand away before the spell could hit its target, but the curse flashed across the short space between the two of them and hit her directly in the face. She heard screaming, she felt the anguish and torment of being in absolute agony, but she didn't feel the pain that went along with it.

Kain looked at her, stunned, and she repeated her disarming spell.

"_Expelliarmis!_" She choked as her eyes flooded with tears.

Kain's wand clattered away, bouncing off the dry stone wall surrounding the quaint little garden, and he froze before her.

"How did you do that?" He panted and backed away from her.

The tears flooded down her reddening cheeks and she gripped her wand so hard she heard the wood splintering. Getting to her feet and advancing upon Kain with fury burning in her glistening eyes, Ginny answered his question through gritted teeth.

"I didn't."

"You..." Kain side-stepped towards his fallen wand. "You can't do that, nobody can do that, it's not possible to block an unforgivable curse."

"I didn't." Ginny growled, shaking with fury. "You can't block it but you can channel it."

Tears dripped from her chin and Ginny wanted to kill him.

"What?" Kain said as he neared his wand.

"_Accio wand!_" Ginny yelled, Kain's wand flying towards her, "_Diffindo!_"

The wand shattered into pieces and fell, charred, to the ground.

"Okay, you win, I surrender. You got me." Kain held his hands up and open before him, fearful of Ginny's wrath.

"Not yet," Ginny said, tear streaked face enraged, "I haven't got you _back_ yet. I haven't paid you back for that Cruciatus curse."

"But it didn't hurt you," Kain said, scrambling back in fear and stumbling over a potted plant, falling flat on his back, "I didn't hurt you, you channelled it."

"I didn't," Ginny said, her voice sounded as dry and rough as sandpaper, "my brother did. My brother took it for me," Ginny's brown eyes darkened as she pointed her wand down at the spiteful wizard, nothing but a pathetic little bully without his wand, "and I'm going to make you pay for that."


	21. 20 Separation

**Separation**

Ron was drenched in sweat and twitching in Hermione's arms. His breathing was rapid and ragged but at least he wasn't thrashing and screaming anymore.

It had been awful.

She had felt the tension seizing up his body and couldn't get through to him to relax before his body arched away from hers and he began to cry out in agony. She had no doubt about the cause of his pain, it was the Cruciatus curse. She tried to think back to what she had wanted, what she'd needed after she had been tormented with it by Bellatrix Lestrange, but all she could remember was how much she had wanted it to stop.

She cradled Ron in her arms and kissed his forehead.

"It's over, it's stopped now, you're safe." She whispered into his face, shakily.

He needed to be treated by a Healer, he'd been hit with an unforgivable curse but it hadn't struck his physical body, it had concentrated on his brain.

"Gi-Gin!" Ron croaked before coughing, his vocal chords raw from the screaming.

Hermione reached out for a glass of water and brought it to his lips.

"Drink this, drink it all down," Hermione said, keeping her voice as soft as possible, cautious that loud noises would cause him more pain in his head.

As Ron gulped and spilled water down his chin, clumsily, the door boomed open and Lionel and another male Healer rushed into the room and froze at the sight before them. Ron sputtered on the water and Hermione moved the glass away and set it back down again. Lionel moved closer and looked into Ron's eyes before picking up his empty, trembling hand.

"Cruciatus," he muttered to himself before turning to his colleague, "he's been hit with the Cruciatus curse. Get the nerve potions, now!"

"He was-" Hermione began but Lionel ignored her and examined Ron's face, lighting the tip of his wand and shining it into his eyes, mouth and then up is long nose.

"_Episkey!_" The stern looking man hissed as he flicked the wand into Ron's face.

"What are you...?" Hermione blinked, she'd seen no blood.

"Nose bleed, all the small blood vessels had ruptured, his eyes are whitening again now. How did this happen?"

"He was...he was talking to his sister," Hermione said, her own voice faltering with emotion now, "talking to her up here."

Hermione tapped the side of Ron's head with her finger. Ron winced and gasped and Hermione made a tiny sound at the back of her throat before holding him to her and kissing his head through his damp hair.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it'll be all right. Lionel's going to fix you up."

The stern man held his fierce demeanour before relaxing a little and lifting Ron's hand, the hand that loosely clutched the Deluminator, and held it before the pale face of his patient.

"Did you use this, Ron?"

Ron shook his head, very slowly.

"Use it now," Lionel said with a nod of encouragement.

Ron swallowed and then licked his lips before speaking.

"Harry."

"We can alert people to whatever has happened after we take care of you," Lionel said with impatience, "now activate it and let it heal you. That curse was concentrated on your brain and there's nobody better at healing your brain that you are."

"I need," Ron said, grimacing, "to give Harry...Harry has to...She's gonna kill him!"

Hermione pointed her wand at the open door and focused everything she had on the fact that Ron was with her, alive and not irreversibly damaged, and cast a Patronus message for Harry. The silver otter darted out through the door and she hoped that he'd not gone too far away since he had left them alone.

"Miss Granger!" Lionel huffed.

"I'm here to give him whatever he needs and he said he needed Harry," Hermione said fiercely, "now where are the potions he needs to take to make him feel better?"

Lionel looked from Hermione to Ron and then nodded.

"We'll have words once he's been properly treated," he said as he rushed out of the room to assist the other Healer.

Ron struggled to sit up but Hermione curled her arms around his waist and held him to her body.

"Lie still, don't move, your joints will be too painful to support you for a while."

Ron shook his head and then groaned at the throbbing it caused.

"No, body's fine, s'just my head. I channelled the curse into my head so Ginny could keep fighting but...but..."

"She'll be fine, Ron," Hermione said, soothingly as she stroked his damp hair away from his clammy face.

"She won't if she kills him! She won't if she tortures him," Ron blurted, panic increasing the speed of his breaths again, "I felt it before the connection broke. She's...she's... She felt me suffering and she's going to punish him for it."

Hermione bit back the first thought in her head, 'good', and realised why Ron needed Harry so badly.

"You have to get Harry to stop her," Hermione said as she held Ron against her chest and tried to get him to mirror her slow breathing.

"I can't find her again, my head hurts too much," Ron said as he slumped back against her, "she can't go all vigilante, she wants to be a professional Quidditch player. They won't take anyone who's maimed or tortured somebody, thrown out of the Aurors on a dishonourable discharge."

"Ron, please calm down, your head doesn't need stress like this. You need to take your potions and sleep it off."

Ron shook his head, eyes tightly shut as he did so, and gritted his teeth.

"I have to send Harry to stop her. Harry would be able to stop her. He knows what it feels like to want revenge."

"But if you can't find her again-" Hermione began.

Harry almost fell into the room through the open door and stumbled over to Ron's bedside.

"What the hell happened? What's wrong with him?"

Ron looked Harry in the eye, totally exhausted, and held up the Deluminator.

"She's not a psycho, you mustn't let her," Ron said hoarsely before clicking the Deluminator.

Harry gasped as the ball of blue light emerged from the device and began bobbling towards Ron's head. Ron lifted his free hand and held it before his face, blocking the light from entering his head and easing the pain.

The blue eyes were still fixed upon Harry and, as Harry looked back at him, Hermione could tell that they were both on the same wavelength. Ron's hand pushed the light towards Harry's chest. Harry bit his bottom lip and nodded to Ron.

"Go," Ron said as the light sank inside Harry.

Somehow, Harry was able to turn on the spot right there, and Disapparate before their eyes.

With his job done, Ron's head fell back heavily and he passed out.

* * *

Ginny felt the sickening nausea of Ron leaving her mind and she threw up a little into her mouth before swallowing it down and then slashing her wand across the space between her and Kain.

"_Incidere!_"

The spell slashed across Kain's face, leaving a shallow cut bleeding across his cheek.

"Agh, wait! Please, I'm sorry! I'm sorry about the unforgivables, but you were doing amazing magic with two wands and I couldn't stop you."

"So you tried to kill me? You tried to torture me? You who are oh so much more powerful than everyone else and have the most amazing mind in the magical world..." Ginny's furious diatribe faltered as she thought of Ron's mind, screaming at her from so far away, "_Effingo maledictio!_"

Kain rolled away and Ginny yelled the duplication spell at him.

"What," she said as she disabled him with the leg-locker curse, "you can dish it out but you can't take it? All I'm doing is mirroring your own curses back at you and you seem to think that those curses are reasonable!"

"I don't!" Kain wriggled on the floor, eyes wide and fearful.

"Murdering Muggles en masse, taking control of the men who run the country, treating Foster like she's your property – the only language you understand is pain, fear and violence."

"I'm-" Kain began but Ginny cut him off with a flick of her wand.

"_Silencio!_"

Kain screwed up his face, tightly, before dragging himself forwards with his arms and lashing out to grab one of the wands she had hold of. Ginny moved a step back, pushed Ron's wand into her back pocket, and scowled down at the man at her feet.

"He found you so easily, you know? You're nothing, nothing compared to him. He wasn't even practiced, not even up to his full strength, and he put you to shame."

Kain's eyes were wide and wild as he glared back up at her from the ground.

"And if he hadn't knocked me off my feet he'd have tried to channel that killing curse for me," Ginny said, face flushing with fury as she pointed her wand down at his face, drew in a breath, and moved her lips to begin the curse she had the rage to deliver.

But she couldn't say it, not even for Ron.

This made her even angrier and she swished her wand through the air and screamed another curse, over and over again, the deep red whip sprouting forth from the tip of her wand and slicing through the air and against Kain's body.

"_Verbero! Verbero! Verbero! Verbero!_"

She delivered lash after lash upon Kain and didn't notice Harry's arrival until he grabbed her about the wrist and held her arm still above her head.

Ginny gave out a scream of frustration and disappointment.

"But I want to kill him! I want to hurt him! Why couldn't I do to him what he did to Ron?"

Harry lowered her wand arm to her side and hugged her tightly from behind, resting his chin upon her shoulder.

"Ron's okay, he was worried about you but he was all right."

"I felt it Harry!" Ginny said with a strangled scream as she tried to swing her wand and another thrashing curse at Kain, but Harry stilled her hand yet again and cast a nonverbal _Incarcerous_ upon him, "I felt Ron feeling it. I felt his pain. He's not all right."

"He's in a hospital and he's going to be fine," Harry said, firmly, "but he was mortified because he felt your pain too and he doesn't want you to become no better than _him_."

Harry pointed down at Kain.

Ginny's shoulders fell.

"He _Crucio_'d him, Harry. He wasn't well enough to fight and he got tortured!"

"He wasn't well enough to fight." Harry repeated Ginny's words before turning her around and gripping her shoulders. "You're not qualified yet and he wasn't well enough. How could you do this without me?"

"Because it had to be us. Only Ron could have found him and you wouldn't have fought with him as your left hand." Ginny looked down at Kain as he wriggled on the ground, "He hasn't suffered enough, Harry. I want him to suffer more."

Harry squeezed Ginny's body against his own and sent a Patronus message to the Auror department so somebody could come and take Kain away and charge him formally.

"Ginny, I love you because you're fun and you make me laugh and you're sexy and confident and strong and I love, _love_ how passionate you are about your family. I don't need to see you torture a man and Ron doesn't want you to do it either. He begged me not to let you do it."

"Could I just kick him?" Ginny said, voice muffled into his shoulder.

"My girlfriend doesn't kick a man when he's down, that's why she's my girlfriend."

Ginny slowly released the enormous pressure cooker of hate inside her and sighed.

"Get back to St Mungo's, see your brother, I'll be along as soon as the others get here...and I'll make sure everyone knows you and Ron are the arresting Aurors." Harry smiled and winked as he let her go.

Ginny turned to look back at Kain but Harry held her chin steady with one finger so she remained facing him.

"Okay, I'm going. Ron's really all right?"

"He's a tough nut, go and see for yourself," Harry said with a smile and a nod before turning his head and looking down at Kain with a darkening expression, "and you know...you're not the type of person to torture anyone no matter how much they deserve it, but I once tortured somebody just for spitting at McGonagall."

Ginny froze for a moment before smiling to herself. She knew that Harry would be able to strike more fear into Kain than she could. She was brimming over with emotion, Harry was as cold as a December morning.

Kain silently pleaded for mercy and Ginny Disapparated to St Mungo's, desperate to see her brother again.

* * *

The sunlight warmed his face and the aroma of bacon frying stirred him from his sleep.

Ron squinted through the bright light of day, eyelids as narrow as possible so he could peer through the protective filter of his bright copper eyelashes, and he lifted his head off the plump pillow.

Everything was golden, no - _orange_ and he realised that he was back in his bedroom at the Burrow. He sat up quickly, then felt dizzy and held his head in one hand, just as the door opened and his mother flung her arms wide.

"Just in time for breakfast!"

Ron cringed at her volume and began wriggling back beneath the covers, aiming for another half hour's sleep, but she moved into his room and waved Ginny in behind her.

"Bacon butties with brown sauce, a special treat for my baby boy," Molly said as she forcibly sat Ron up and stuffed his pillow behind his back.

"Mum, bloody hell, what are you doing?" Ron grumbled.

"It's tomorrow, Ron," Ginny said as she set the tray on his lap, spilling his tea into the saucer at the same time, "You haven't eaten since the cake."

Ron looked stunned before suddenly registering that he should be in a hospital room.

"What am I doing h... Ginny, did we get him? Did Harry get there? What did you do?"

His mother ruffled his hair with affection and Ginny picked up the bacon butty and stuffed it into his mouth to shut him up.

"Kain's in custody, Foster's out of hiding, I resigned from the Aurors with a commendation from Kingsley on my record and you..." Ginny smiled broadly down at him, "You, Ron, are fully qualified and second in command to Harry."

Ron choked on his mouthful and his mother slapped him on the back.

"As soon as you get your strength back you're going to have a briefing with Kingsley and Harry and then work with Lionel on hunting down the ten most wanted Death Eaters."

"The brains, Ginny dear, don't forget the brains," their mother nodded to her.

"Oh yeah, and you are going to go into the Department of Mysteries to talk to the brains for the Unspeakables."

"Talk to the brains!" Ron managed to say after he dry swallowed his mouthful.

"But only when Lionel says you're ready." His Mum said with a nod of reassurance and approval.

"Talk to the brains." Ron repeated to himself, "What am I gonna say to a tank of brains?"

His mother looked as if she too was a little lost on how getting Ron to communicate with strange floating brains could be of any help to anyone but didn't say a word as she brushed herself down and set off back to the kitchen, and to send an owl to Harry and Hermione informing them that Ron had woken up no doubt.

Ginny waited for a moment before leaning in closer to Ron and whispering.

"Lionel thinks the brains will help you. It's not that they want you to ask them anything for the Unspeakables, it's that you need to go to the source of your gift to understand it...or something."

Ron nodded.

"Like a reunion," he said with a half shrug and crooked smile.

Ginny looked at him fondly and then down at his breakfast.

"Eat up, there's nothing of you and you need to fill those fancy Auror robes now you've made it."

"Are you sure you don't want to..." Ron frowned.

"I never wanted to be an Auror. It's Quidditch all the way for me, the Auror team was my way in but now I don't need one." Ginny looked back up and met her brother's eyes.

"He didn't hurt you did he?"

Ginny shook her head.

"Not even an itch, you took the whole curse." She suddenly flung herself at him and squeezed him with a tight hug. "You drive me bonkers, you patronise me and irritate me and you are the biggest pain in my arse I will ever know...but I'd be lost without you. You used to be my best friend."

Ron nudged her in the side of the ribs and chuckled.

"You used to be my _only_ friend."

Ginny sat back and looked at him, thoughtfully, for a moment before smiling at him.

"Let's not drift apart again this time, okay?"

Ron gave a single nod before cocking his head to one side and the corners of his mouth curled up, mischievously.

"Can I still annoy you?"

Ginny rolled her eyes and sighed.

"As if you ever have to ask!"


End file.
